Mary Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Somers Town, London, 30 August 1797 – Chester Square, London, 1 February 1851), better known as Mary Shelley, was a British writer, daughter of the philosopher William Godwin and the feminist and writer Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary Shelley was an author, playwright, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her gothic novel, Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley, whom she married in 1816 after his first wife's suicide.

Mary's mother died 10 days after her daughter's birth; She and her half-sister, Fanny Imlay, were raised by their father. When Mary was four years old, Godwin married a neighbor, Mary Jane Clairmont. Godwin gave his daughter a rich, informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his liberal political theories. In 1814, Mary Godwin began a romantic relationship with one of her father's political followers, the married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Together with Mary's adopted sister, Claire Clairmont, they leave for France and travel through Europe; Once returning to England, Mary becomes pregnant with Percy. Over the next two years, she and Percy face ostracism, debt, and the premature death of their daughter. They married in 1816 after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet. In 1816, the famous couple spent the summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys leave Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children die before the birth of their last and only surviving child, Percy Florence. In 1822, her husband drowned when his boat sank during a storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England, dedicating herself ever since to her son's education and career as a professional author. The last decade of his life was marked by illness, probably caused by the brain tumor that would kill him at the age of 53.

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