Post on 24-Dec-2015
transcript
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