Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley in their full historical, literary, and personal contexts, because their lives were almost as Gothic as the fiction they produced.
Mary Shelley (1797–1851)
Parents:
Mary Wollstonecraft — pioneering feminist philosopher, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
William Godwin — radical political philosopher, author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
Mary’s mother died of puerperal fever just days after giving birth, leaving Mary to be raised by Godwin. Godwin’s second marriage to Mary Jane Clairmont created a tense stepfamily environment. Mary was highly educated for a woman of her era — steeped in philosophy, literature, and radical ideas — but also emotionally restless.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
Aristocratic family background in Sussex.
Early marriage to Harriet Westbrook in 1811 ended in separation; she later drowned herself in 1816.
Already developing his radical political, anti-religious, and proto-anarchist ideals.
The Scandal of Their Union
Mary met Percy in 1814 when she was 16 and he was 21. Percy, already married to Harriet, fell for Mary’s intellect and spirit. They began an affair — walking together at her mother’s grave was a frequent meeting point. This was seen as outrageously immoral in early 19th-century England.
In July 1814, they eloped to continental Europe with Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont, traveling through war-torn France and Switzerland. They returned financially broke and socially shunned.
1816 — The "Year Without a Summer" & Frankenstein’s Birth
After Harriet’s suicide in December 1816, Mary and Percy married, partly to secure custody of Percy’s children with Harriet (which they still lost to Harriet’s family due to their unconventional lifestyle).
In summer 1816, they traveled to Lake Geneva with Claire Clairmont, who was pursuing Lord Byron. The circle — Byron, Percy, Mary, and Byron’s physician John Polidori — became literary legends. The volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 caused global climate cooling, leading to storms and gloomy weather.
Confined indoors, they challenged each other to write ghost stories. Mary, after a vivid waking dream about a scientist who reanimates the dead, began Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (published 1818).
Percy’s Literary Career
Percy was a revolutionary Romantic poet, writing:
Ozymandias (1818)
To a Skylark (1820)
Prometheus Unbound (1820)
Adonaïs (1821, elegy for John Keats)
Themes: political liberation, human perfectibility, anti-establishment ideals, spiritual and cosmic transcendence.
He was frequently impoverished due to abandoning his inheritance, living off sporadic family allowances and loans.
Exile in Italy
From 1818 to 1822, the Shelleys lived in Italy. These years were productive but tragic — they lost three of their four children to illness. Mary suffered deep depression, while Percy sought creative stimulation in radical politics and other friendships (including some romantic entanglements).
Percy’s Death (1822)
In July 1822, Percy’s boat, the Don Juan, sank in the Gulf of Spezia during a storm. He was just 29. His body washed ashore, partially cremated on the beach in a famous scene witnessed by Byron and others; legend claims his heart resisted burning and was later kept by Mary.
Mary’s Later Life
Widowed at 24, Mary dedicated herself to:
Raising her only surviving son, Percy Florence Shelley.
Editing and publishing Percy’s works (against the wishes of his conservative family).
Continuing her own writing: novels (The Last Man, a proto-apocalyptic tale; Valperga), travel books, and biographies.
She never remarried, rejecting suitors and focusing on preserving Percy’s literary reputation. She died in 1851 at 53, from a probable brain tumor.
Cultural & Esoteric Layers
Radicalism: Both were immersed in Enlightenment and proto-anarchist ideals, viewing political and moral revolution as essential.
Occult Interests: Percy dabbled in alchemy, atheism, and mystical cosmology; Mary’s works reflect a fascination with creation, mortality, and the limits of human power.
Proto-Science Fiction: Frankenstein is not only Gothic horror but also an early meditation on technology, hubris, and moral responsibility — resonating with today’s debates on AI and bioengineering.
Romantic Martyrdom: Percy’s drowning, like Keats’ early death and Byron’s doomed adventures, cemented the Romantic mythos — the artist as visionary outsider doomed by a hostile world.
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