Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley August 30, 1797-February 1, 1851

1. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley August 30, 1797-February 1, 1851

2. She was born in London in 1797. At the age of 16 she ran away to Venice, Italy with Percy Shelley. She started to write it at the age of 18, but did not have it published until she was 21. She married the poet Percy Shelley in 1816.  In her childhood Mary Shelley was left to educate herself amongst her father's intellectual circle About Mary

3. When Mary was only twenty-four Percy drowned, leaving her penniless with a two year old son. Poverty forced her to live in England which she despised because of the morality and social system. She was shunned by conventional circles and worked as a professional writer to support her father and her son. Mary became an invalid at the age of forty-eight. She died in 1851 of a brain tumor with poetic timing.

4. Writings • Mounseer Nongtongpaw; or, The Discoveries of John Bull in a Trip to Paris (London: Printed for the Proprietors of the Juvenile Library, 1808). • History of a Six Weeks' Tour through a part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, with Letters descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni (London: Published by T. Hookham, jun., and C. & J. Ollier, 1817). • Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (3 volumes, London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones, 1818; revised edition, 1 volume, London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1831; 2 volumes, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1833). • Valperga: or, The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca, 3 volumes (London: G. & W. B. Whittaker, 1823). • The Last Man (3 volumes, London: Henry Colburn, 1826; 2 volumes, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1833). • The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (3 volumes, London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1830; 2 volumes, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1834). • Lodore (3 volumes, London: Richard Bentley, 1835; 1 volume, New York: Wallis & Newell, 1835). • Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, volumes 86-88 of The Cabinet of Biography, in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia, conducted by Reverend Dionysius Lardner (London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman and John Taylor, 1835-1837; republished in part as Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, 2 volumes (Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1841). • Falkner (3 volumes, London: Saunders & Otley, 1837; 1 volume, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1837). • Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, volumes 102 and 103 of The Cabinet of Biography (London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, 1838, 1839); republished in part as Lives of the Most Eminent French Writers, 2 volumes (Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1840). • Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843, 2 volumes (London: Edward Moxon, 1844). • The Choice--A Poem on Shelley's Death, edited by H. Buxton Forman (London: Printed for the editor for private distribution, 1876). • Tales and Stories, edited by Richard Garnett (London: William Paterson, 1891). • Proserpine & Midas: Two Unpublished Mythological Dramas, edited by A. Koszul (London: Humphrey Milford, 1922). • Mary Shelley's Journal, edited by Frederick L. Jones (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1947). • Mathilda, edited by Elizabeth Nitchie (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959). • Collected Tales and Stories, edited by Charles E. Robinson (Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976). • The Journals of Mary Shelley, 2 volumes, edited by Paula Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987).

5. Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, volumes 86-88 of The Cabinet of Biography, in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia, conducted by Reverend Dionysius Lardner (London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman and John Taylor, 1835-1837; republished in part as Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, 2 volumes (Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1841). • Falkner (3 volumes, London: Saunders & Otley, 1837; 1 volume, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1837). • Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, volumes 102 and 103 of The Cabinet of Biography (London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, 1838, 1839); republished in part as Lives of the Most Eminent French Writers, 2 volumes (Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1840). • Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843, 2 volumes (London: Edward Moxon, 1844). • The Choice--A Poem on Shelley's Death, edited by H. Buxton Forman (London: Printed for the editor for private distribution, 1876). • Tales and Stories, edited by Richard Garnett (London: William Paterson, 1891). • Proserpine & Midas: Two Unpublished Mythological Dramas, edited by A. Koszul (London: Humphrey Milford, 1922). • Mary Shelley's Journal, edited by Frederick L. Jones (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1947). • Mathilda, edited by Elizabeth Nitchie (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959). • Collected Tales and Stories, edited by Charles E. Robinson (Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976). • The Journals of Mary Shelley, 2 volumes, edited by Paula Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987).

6. Shelley was challenged by Lord Byron and Percy Shelley to write the most frightening ghost story of all time.  Mary Shelley revealed in the 1831 edition of Frankenstein that the story had come from a dream she had, in which she described what she saw: “the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.” 

7. The Last Man is an early science fiction novel, which was first published in 1826. The book tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. The Last Man was written in the period following her husband’s death.

8. The End