Famous writers
Mary Shelley
From earliest childhood Mary Shelley was under the personal influence of the literary great of her time. Lamb was a frequent visitor at her fathers’s house. Coleridge came and read in his hypnotically persuasive voice from “The Ancient Mariner”.
William Godwin, Mary’s father, was born in a conservative family. Early in life he showed an interest in religion and as a young man was a minister. He did not remain long in his profession. A volume of sermons, followed by some serious philosophical writings of respect in the literary world.
Godwin married Mary Wollstonecraft, who was herself a writer of no mean ability. Her book, “Vindication of the Rights of Women”, calling for equality of education and opportunity in the commercial world for her sex, brought fame.
Mary Shelley was born on the 30th of August 1797. Her mother dies ten days later. Perhaps much of the sorrow of Mary’s life would been avoided had her liberally minded and strong-willed mother survived.
Godwin struggled to care for Mary and her older half-sister, but feared that his bachelor home was not the proper surroundings. A few years after the death of his first wife, he remarried. This second marriage does not seem to have been fortunate, for his wife had no understanding of the theories and philosophies of Godwin and his associates. Poor financial circumstances only served to place an extra strain upon the family.
At the age of 17, Mary eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley to Switzerland. It was on this trip that she undertook her first serious literary venture, a travel-book of the journey.
Shelley, though in line to inherit a baronetcy, had little money. He was an almost unknown poet (Shelley never became popular until long after this death). His family supplied a small allowance, but Shelley was for years on the verge of bankruptcy, mainly due to loans he secured for Godwin’s publishing business. Godwin, though borrowing money through Shelley, never forgave him for eloping with Mary.
Shelley’s family regarded him as a black-sheep. His anti-religious writings soon brought him into disfavor in England. Seeking more pleasant surroundings, the young couple went to Italy. It was here, while visiting with Byron, that the idea for Frankenstein was born.
A discussion of Darwin’s experiments, then conjectures on the possibility of restoring life to dead bodies appealed to Mary Shelley’s fertile imagination. A nightmare on the subject convinced her that this was material for a novel that would terrify the reader.
It was not until sometime later that the novel was completed and published. It brought almost immediate fame. Though she wrote several other novels, all of them well-received by the public at that time, only Frankenstein had stood the test of time.
Shelley died in a boat wreck off the Italian coast in 1822 and Mary made her way back to England. Poverty followed her almost to her grave. Shelley’s family settled a small pension on her. In 1844 the family title and estate passed on to her son, Percy Florence, the only one of her children who survived.
Mary Shelley died quietly on the 21st of February 1851 at the age fifty-three.
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