Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

(1797-1851) English author who wrote the

Gothic horror story Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus (1818)

Her Birth Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin

• born on 30 August 1797 - London, England

• 2nd daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

Mother: Mary Wollstonecra

ft (1759-1797)

•Feminist - A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).

•Had 2 children in her lifetime,• Fanny Imlay, was born May 14, 1794. • Unwed mother.

•Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, 1797

•The mother died of "child-bed“ fever 11 days later.

Father: William Godwin(1756 - 1836)

Believed in alternative, free, education.

William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft became lovers.

Got pregnant: Wollstonecraft asked Godwin to marry her in

Eventually married BUT he was deeply critical of marriage • in this instance the ‘goods’

outweighed the ‘evils’).

•1801 Father Remarried Mary Jane Clairmont.

•gained a stepsister, Claire.• Claire and Mary would remain very close for

the rest of their lives.

•Result: bitter times for Mary•Cruel step mother •Emotionally distant father

•consoled herself: mother’s graveside & Scotland

Evil Stepmother?

Sweet Step-SisterPortrait By Aemilia Curran, 1819’

Claire Clairmont half-sister, ran off w/ Mary and Percy

to Lake Geneva was present when Mary first made

up the story of Frankenstein.

Love affair with Lord Byron• daughter, Allegra, January 1817.

Mary’s Education Tutors. Studied :

• parent’s writings• literature and poetry• Latin, French, and Italian.• Enlightenment literary

figures William Blake Samuel Taylor Coleridge Charles Lamb.

1st publication: a poem at the age of 10.

Dear HusbandPERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY political radical free-thinker He & 1st wife

Harriet • visited Godwin's

London.

Eloped: July 1814 @ 16Godwin wont speak for the next 2 ½ years

Harriet, Percy’s 1st wife, is pregnant with 2nd child

Harriet gives birth in November 1814.

Clara, William, Clara, and Percy Florence Shelley

1815 - Clara, born premature. Dies 2 weeks later.

1816 Harriet: suicidePercy and Mary get

married1816- William (1816-1819)1817- 2nd daughter, Clara (1817-1819)1819 – Percy Florence Shelley

1822, nearly fatal miscarriage

Percy sailinga sudden storm struck and it sank.

Percy’s body washed ashore

Mary compiles his writing in The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe (1824).

1823 Mary returned to England w/son Percy.

Percy Bysshe’s father Sir Timothy Shelley

provided an annual income

Percy, Jr. inherited estate and title in 1844

Mary: wrote numerous short stories, essays, poems, and reviews

The Last Man (1826)

Perkin Warbeck (1830)

Ledore (1835) Falkner (1837)

Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844)

Other works

The End of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Bouts of illness beginning in1840’s

Died at home in London, age of 54 on

1 February 1851.

Buried in St. Peter’s Bournemouth, Dorset, England.

3 Questions What do you think drew Mary to

Percy Shelley?

What do you think was the saddest part of her story? The best part?

How do you think her life impacted her writing of Frankenstein?

Quiz anyone?http://www.online-literature.com/quiz.php?quizid=388