Collection: Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, author of the famous Frankenstein . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Mary's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, also a writer, died less than two weeks after her birth. She was raised by her father, who provided her with an excellent, if informal, education. In 1814, Mary began an affair with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was five years older than her, and was already married. She, her half-sister Claire Clairmont, and Percy left for France in a scandalous atmosphere and traveled around Europe.
By the time she returned to England, Mary was already pregnant. The couple married in late 1816, after Percy's first wife committed suicide. In 1816, the young couple, Mary's half-sister, and Lord Byron spent their famous summer near Geneva, where Shelley got the idea Frankenstein .
In 1822, Percy drowned in a storm near Viareggio, Italy. A year later, Shelley returned to England and devoted herself from then on to raising her son and pursuing a career as a writer. The last years of her life were marked by illness, most likely caused by a brain tumor, which killed her at the age of 53.
