I was asked each morning, and each morning I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative. [115] They never reached their destination. The first edition of Frankenstein came out in 1818, but it did not carry her name. Aside from her earnings from writing, she lived on a small stipend from her . She wrote several other books, including Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), the autobiographical Lodore (1835) and the posthumously published Mathilde. For example, Bennett claims that Mary Shelley's works reveal a consistent commitment to Romantic idealism and political reform[216] and Jane Blumberg's study of Shelley's early novels argues that her career cannot be easily divided into radical and conservative halves. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is best known for writing Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818, revised 1831), a text that is partGothic noveland part philosophical novel. [191] In Lodore, for example, the central story follows the fortunes of the wife and daughter of the title character, Lord Lodore, who is killed in a duel at the end of the first volume, leaving a trail of legal, financial, and familial obstacles for the two "heroines" to negotiate. (The man-made monster in this novel inspired a similar creature . [32] On 28 July 1814, the couple eloped and secretly left for France, taking Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, with them. Shelley was born in London on Aug. 30, 1797, to writer Mary Wollstonecraft, who died of puerperal fever 10 days after the birth. [111], The coast offered Percy Shelley and Edward Williams the chance to enjoy their "perfect plaything for the summer", a new sailing boat. She had a governess, a daily tutor, and read many of her father's children's books on Roman and Greek history in manuscript. "[71] She noted that "In recent years Percy's corrections, visible in the Frankenstein notebooks held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, have been seized on as evidence that he must have at least co-authored the novel. She and Percy now found themselves penniless, and, to Mary's genuine surprise, her father refused to have anything to do with her. Wolfson, "Mary Shelley, editor" (CC), 193. On the morning of 10 October, Fanny Imlay was found dead in a room at a Swansea inn, along with a suicide note and a laudanum bottle. Percy Bysshe Shelley, a controversial English writer of great personal conviction, was born . Mary's actions alienated her from her father who did not speak to her for some time. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher . [276] In recent decades, the republication of almost all her writing has stimulated a new recognition of its value. All essays from The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley are marked with a "(CC)" and those from The Other Mary Shelley with an "(OMS)". [251] "I am to justify his ways," she had declared in 1824; "I am to make him beloved to all posterity. "Look forward to future years, if not with eager anticipation, yet with a calm reliance upon the power of good, wholly remote from despair." - Mary Shelley. Letter to Maria Gisborne, 30 October 17 November 1834. The Godwin household had a number of distinguished guests during Shelley's childhood, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. [18] To Baxter, he wrote, "I am anxious that she should be brought uplike a philosopher, even like a cynic. Godwin was angry and felt betrayed. Unusual question, but can you help me figure out a thesis? [224] Although Mary Shelley wrote twenty-one short stories for the annuals between 1823 and 1839, she always saw herself, above all, as a novelist. Pregnant and often ill, Mary Godwin had to cope with Percy's joy at the birth of his son by Harriet Shelley in late 1814 and his constant outings with Claire Clairmont. English writer Mary Shelley is best known for her horror novel "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus." She was married to Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was a philosopher and poet. In the summer of 1816, Mary and Percy Shelley were travelling in Europe and spent time visiting Byron at his house in Switzerland. Moskal, "Travel writing", 24750; Orr, "Mary Shelley's. ", After her husband's death, Mary Shelley lived for a year with Leigh Hunt and his family in Genoa, where she often saw Byron and transcribed his poems. She was buried at St. Peter's Church in Bournemouth, laid to rest with the cremated remains of her late husband's heart. What era did Mary Shelley live in? Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was decidedly a Romantic. Studies of her lesser-known works, such as the travel book Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (18291846), support the growing view that Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. [48][note 4] On 22 February 1815, she gave birth to a two-month premature baby girl, who was not expected to survive. [34] Godwin wrote about France in 1814: "The distress of the inhabitants, whose houses had been burned, their cattle killed and all their wealth destroyed, has given a sting to my detestation of war". This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780143131847. Writing on the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein, literary scholar and poet Fiona Sampson asked, "Why hasn't Mary Shelley gotten the respect she deserves? However, the business did not turn a profit, and Godwin was forced to borrow substantial sums to keep it going. of the author. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelleys father was William Godwin, a noted social philosopher, political journalist, and religious Dissenter, and her mother wasMary Wollstonecraft, a writer and passionate advocate of educational and socialequalityforwomen. 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. She also liked to daydream, escaping from her often challenging home life into her imagination. [92] She was often physically ill, however, and prone to depressions. The following summer, the Shelleys were in Switzerland with Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron and John Polidori. QUICK FACTS. (Sunstein, 9899), The violent storms were, it is now known, a repercussion of the volcanic eruption of. 1. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, left, was influenced by scientific theories of the author's time, including galvanism the idea that electricity could reanimate dead tissue. A friend of her son's bribed a police chief into seizing Gatteschi's papers, including the letters, which were then destroyed. [248][note 18] Mary began her fostering of Percy's poetic reputation in 1824 with the publication of his Posthumous Poems. He had agreed to raise her so long as Claire had nothing more to do with her. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt and the death of their prematurely born daughter. To understand the novel, its rooting in Mary Shelley's formative years, and its impact, it is necessary to understand a little of Mary Shelley's background. Sadly for Shelley, she never really knew her mother who died shortly after her birth. When was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley married? Jump, Harriet Devine, Pamela Clemit, and Betty T. Bennett, eds. [193] However, Falkner is the only one of Mary Shelley's novels in which the heroine's agenda triumphs. Robinson 1996, part 1, p. lxvii, quoted in Jones 1998. As Bennett explains, "biographers and critics agree that Mary Shelley's commitment to bring Shelley the notice she believed his works merited was the single, major force that established Shelley's reputation during a period when he almost certainly would have faded from public view". The book proved to be a huge success. Shelley creates dramatic intensity by having one narrator, Walton, begin the story and then become the listener and recorder for a second narrator, Frankenstein. Here are 12 Mary Shelley quotes for writers and about writing from the author of Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, Valperga, and The Last Man. [95] In 1820, they found themselves plagued by accusations and threats from Paolo and Elise Foggi, former servants whom Percy Shelley had dismissed in Naples shortly after the Foggis had married. [75] Mr and Mrs Godwin were present and the marriage ended the family rift. But thou art fled, gone down a dreary road "[214] This vision allowed women to participate in the public sphere but it inherited the inequalities inherent in the bourgeois family. Romanticism's major themesrestlessness and brooding, rebellion against authority, interchange with nature, the power of the visionary imagination and of poetry, the pursuit of ideal love, and the untamed spirit ever in search of freedomall of these . Shelley was the heir to rich estates acquired by his grandfather . Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Birth date: August 30, 1797. [197] Victor Frankenstein is like Satan in Paradise Lost, and Prometheus: he rebels against tradition; he creates life; and he shapes his own destiny. An alaska native woman born in Canada, raised in Alaska, who loves to write about movies, tv shows, beauty, and what it means to be a better human being. Professional health, wellness, and lifestyle writer sharing perspectives on topics such as mental health, chronic illness, relationships, career, and business. [54] In History of a Six Weeks Tour through a part of France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland (1817), she describes the particularly desolate landscape in crossing from France into Switzerland. Latest answer posted June 18, 2011 at 6:31:07 AM. She contributed five volumes of Lives of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French authors to Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia. For Woman . [14] Godwin admitted he was not educating the children according to Mary Wollstonecraft's philosophy as outlined in works such as A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), but Mary Godwin nonetheless received an unusual and advanced education for a girl of the time. Paley, "Apocalypse without Millennium" (OMS), 11121; Mellor, 159. Mary Shelley was aware of Payne's plan, but how seriously she took it is unclear. The classic 1818 novel Frankenstein, written by author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is without a doubt an essential piece of literature. Shelley never got along with her stepmother. March 14, 2018. "[278] Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.[274]. It is easy for the biographer to give undue weight to the opinions of the people who happen to have written things down." [126] Payne accepted the rejection and tried without success to talk his friend Irving into proposing himself. Mary delivered a baby girl who only lived for a few days. Mary Shelley's Obsession with the Cemetery. Mary Shelley was born in London on August 30, 1797. Late 20th-century publications of her casual writings include The Journals of Mary Shelley, 18141844 (1987), edited by Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert, and Selected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1995), edited by Betty T. Bennett. Upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with Percy's child. Mary Shelley, Introduction to 1831 edition of. [citation needed], In 1840 and 1842, mother and son travelled together on the continent, journeys that Mary Shelley recorded in Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842 and 1843 (1844). On their return to England in September, Mary and Percy movedwith Claire Clairmont, who took lodgings nearbyto Bath, where they hoped to keep Claire's pregnancy secret. Her stepmother decided that her stepsister Jane (later Claire) should be sent away to school, but she saw no need to educate Shelley. She was married to poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Known for his lyrical and long-form verse, Percy Bysshe Shelley was a prominent English Romantic poet and was one of the most highly regarded and influential poets of the 19th century. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (ne Godwin; 30 August 1797 - 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel "Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus" (1818). Mary Shelley (working title A Storm in the Stars) is a 2017 romantic period-drama film directed by Haifaa al-Mansour and written by Emma Jensen. She was certainly not a rich writer in her time, but it was difficult to earn a fortune from writing in those days, as publishers only paid a lump sum at the time of publication, as royalties were not a thing. Seymour, 221; Spark, 86; Letter to Isabella Hoppner, 10 August 1821. She resolved to live by her pen and for her son, but her financial situation was precarious. Jane later disillusioned her by gossiping that Percy had preferred her to Mary, owing to Mary's inadequacy as a wife. "[62] During one mid-June evening, the discussions turned to the nature of the principle of life. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in her later years added to this impression. According to Mary Shelley's introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel, the three writers devised a game to see who could . At about the same time, Mary's father learned of Shelley's inability to pay off the father's debts. Accessed 2 Mar. [27] On 26 June 1814, Shelley and Godwin declared their love for one another as Shelley announced he could not hide his "ardent passion", leading her in a "sublime and rapturous moment" to say she felt the same way; on either that day or the next, Godwin lost her virginity to Shelley, which tradition claims happened in the churchyard. Mary returned to England so she could focus on raising their son and working on her writing. They got married in 1816 while she also continued her writing career. [229], Mary Shelley's last full-length book, written in the form of letters and published in 1844, was Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842 and 1843, which recorded her travels with her son Percy Florence and his university friends. Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin on August 30, 1797, in London, England. Holmes, 725; Sunstein, 21718; Seymour, 27073. [199], Mary Shelley believed in the Enlightenment idea that people could improve society through the responsible exercise of political power, but she feared that the irresponsible exercise of power would lead to chaos. What are some websites that have the actual poems that Mary Shelley wrote? Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [129][note 13] With the help of Payne, whom she kept in the dark about the details, Mary Shelley obtained false passports for the couple. As she explains, "the fact is that until recent years scholars have generally regarded Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley as a result: William Godwin's and Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter who became Shelley's Pygmalion. Updated on February 20, 2020. To avoid boarding fees, she moved to Harrow on the Hill herself so that Percy could attend as a day scholar. Her mother . 5. She was born on 30 August 1797 in London. "[69] Charles E. Robinson, editor of a facsimile edition of the Frankenstein manuscripts, concluded that Percy's contributions to the book "were no more than what most publishers' editors have provided new (or old) authors or, in fact, what colleagues have provided to each other after reading each other's works in progress."[70]. Kucich, "Biographer" (CC), 235; see Nora Crook, "General Editor's Introduction". She was the daughter of philosopher and political writer William Godwin and famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). [6], Mary's earliest years were happy, judging from the letters of William Godwin's housekeeper and nurse, Louisa Jones. Shelley returned to the Baxters' home the following year. Mary and Percy Shelley were finally able to wed in December 1816. She visited the cemetery to commune with her dead mother. Wolfson, "Editorial Privilege" (OMS), 68, n. 34. "[252] It was this goal, argues Blumberg, that led her to present Percy's work to the public in the "most popular form possible". She was a pretty sharp teenager and was unusually well-educated in the sciences; very possibly, she invented modern science fiction at the age of 18. Watch it now, Wondrium. [103] Rome inspired her to begin writing the unfinished novel Valerius, the Reanimated Roman, where the eponymous hero resists the decay of Rome and the machinations of "superstitious" Catholicism. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, most likely caused by the brain tumour which killed her at age 53. Fisch, Audrey A., Anne K. Mellor, and Esther H. Schorr, eds. [228] The letters the couple wrote on the second journey confront the "great and extraordinary events" of the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo after his "Hundred Days" return in 1815. In her novel 'The Last Man, she later imagined Windsor as a Garden of Eden. "[17], In June 1812, Mary's father sent her to stay with the dissenting family of the radical William Baxter, near Dundee, Scotland. Mary Shelley's own life was as dramatic as her fiction. Letter to Maria Gisborne, 15 August 1815, Spark, 13334; Seymour, 42526; Bennett, Introduction to. [241], For Shelley, biographical writing was supposed to, in her words, "form as it were a school in which to study the philosophy of history",[242] and to teach "lessons". He had been out sailing with a friend in the Gulf of Spezia. In Rambles, Shelley follows the tradition of Mary Wollstonecraft's Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark and her own A History of a Six Weeks' Tour in mapping her personal and political landscape through the discourse of sensibility and sympathy. [156] Unfortunately, all of Mary's juvenilia were lost when she ran off with Percy in 1814, and none of her surviving manuscripts can be definitively dated before that year. The threat of a debtor's prison, combined with their ill health and fears of losing custody of their children, contributed to the couple's decision to leave England for Italy on 12 March 1818, taking Claire Clairmont and Alba with them. Mary wrote Valperga to help alleviate her father's financial difficulties, as Percy refused to assist him further. Either before or during the journey, she had become pregnant. [206] Not only does she reject these Enlightenment political ideals, but she also rejects the Romantic notion that the poetic or literary imagination can offer an alternative. There Mary Shelley gave birth to her third child, Clara, on 2 September. [207], There is a new scholarly emphasis on Shelley as a lifelong reformer, deeply engaged in the liberal and feminist concerns of her day. Wolfson, "Mary Shelley, editor" (CC), 203. In Mary Shelley's novel, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster. Mary Wollstonecraft died only ten years after the birth of Mary Shelley. He published dozens of plays and poems that remain the standard for drama, verse, and wit. Qtd. Moskal, "Travel writing" (CC), 244; Clemit, "Legacies of Godwin and Wollstonecraft" (CC), 30. [74] Both suicides were hushed up. She also wrote stories for ladies' magazines. Writer Mary Shelley published her most famous novel, Frankenstein, in . [52] Little is known about this period in Mary Godwin's life, since her journal from May 1815 to July 1816 is lost. Myers, Mitzi. [141] Oblique references in her journals, from the early 1830s until the early 1840s, suggest that Mary Shelley had feelings for the radical politician Aubrey Beauclerk, who may have disappointed her by twice marrying others. This is a transcript from the video series How Great Science Fiction Works. Mary Shelley is an English novelist whose work has reached all corners of the globe. [262] In principle, Mary Shelley believed in publishing every last word of her husband's work;[263] but she found herself obliged to omit certain passages, either by pressure from her publisher, Edward Moxon, or in deference to public propriety. "[116] She and Jane Williams rushed desperately to Livorno and then to Pisa in the fading hope that their husbands were still alive. Mary's life was rocked by another tragedy in 1822 when her husband drowned. After the horror novel was published, Shelley said that its original idea came to her in a dream. [212] Poovey suggested that Mary Shelley wrote Falkner to resolve her conflicted response to her father's combination of libertarian radicalism and stern insistence on social decorum. She was cremated in Saint Peters Church in Bournemouth. [182] Mary Poovey reads the first edition of Frankenstein as part of a larger pattern in Shelley's writing, which begins with literary self-assertion and ends with conventional femininity. They travelled down the Rhine and by land to the Dutch port of Maassluis, arriving at Gravesend, Kent, on 13 September 1814. She was in fact challenging the political and literary influences of her circle in her first work. During the summer of 1812, Shelley went to Scotland to stay with an acquaintance of her father William Baxter and his family. The novel is engaged with political and ideological issues, particularly the education and social role of women. She was raised by her father, who provided her with a rich if informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his own anarchist political theories. [105] The novella offered a feminist critique of a patriarchal society as Matilda is punished in the afterlife, though she did nothing to encourage her father's feelings. [33], After convincing Mary Jane Godwin, who had pursued them to Calais, that they did not wish to return, the trio travelled to Paris, and then, by donkey, mule, carriage, and foot, through a France recently ravaged by war, to Switzerland. [201] In practice, her works largely criticise the way 18th-century thinkers such as her parents believed such change could be brought about. Rather than wait for a doctor, Percy sat her in a bath of ice to stanch the bleeding, an act the doctor later told him saved her life. It was at this time that Mary Shelley began work on what would become her most famous novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. 26. Her mother . After several months of promises, Shelley announced that he either could not or would not pay off all of Godwin's debts. [143] Though Percy went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, and dabbled in politics and the law, he showed no sign of his parents' gifts. Sunstein, 7075; Seymour, 88; St. Clair, 32935. She may have been, in the words of her biographer Muriel Spark, "a little in love" with Jane. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is a piece of literature that explores the pent-up resentment in a maternal-like relationship between a shamefaced creator, Victor Frankenstein and his neglected creation, the "monster". [77][note 7] In March of that year, the Chancery Court ruled Percy Shelley morally unfit to assume custody of his children and later placed them with a clergyman's family. Shelley finished writing the first edition of Frankenstein when she was 19 years old. Impressed by the . The couple devoted their time to writing, reading, learning, sightseeing, and socialising. Mary Godwin read these memoirs and her mother's books, and was brought up to cherish her mother's memory. [253] To tailor his works for a Victorian audience, she cast Percy Shelley as a lyrical rather than a political poet. [15] For six months in 1811, she also attended a boarding school in Ramsgate. [117], "[Frankenstein] is the most wonderful work to have been written at twenty years of age that I ever heard of. Seymour argues that evidence from Polidori's diary conflicts with Mary Shelley's account of when the idea came to her (157). Wolfson, "Mary Shelley, editor" (CC), 193, 209. [63] It was after midnight before they retired, and unable to sleep, she became possessed by her imagination as she beheld the grim terrors of her "waking dream", her ghost story:[64], I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. I 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. It was a tricky assignment. Born in 1819, their son, Percy Florence, was the only child to live to adulthood. They struggled financially and faced the loss of their first child in 1815. [36] At Lucerne, lack of money forced the three to turn back. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of the landmark A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), was, according to that book's introduction, "the first major . Gittings and Manton, 31; Seymour, 152. Elise seems to have first met Paolo only in September. [150] Also in 1845, Percy Bysshe Shelley's cousin Thomas Medwin approached her claiming to have written a damaging biography of Percy Shelley. [166], "[Euthanasia] was never heard of more; even her name perished.The private chronicles, from which the foregoing relation has been collected, end with the death of Euthanasia. She wrote several other novels, includingValperga(1823),The Last Man(1826), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck(1830),Lodore (1835), andFalkner(1837), and a travel book,History of a Six Weeks Tour(1817). [47] In practice, however, she loved only Percy Shelley and seems to have ventured no further than flirting with Hogg. [122] Mary Shelley enjoyed the stimulating society of William Godwin's circle, but poverty prevented her from socialising as she wished. [190] Shelley was "profoundly committed to an ethic of cooperation, mutual dependence, and self-sacrifice". [79] At Marlow, Mary edited the joint journal of the group's 1814 Continental journey, adding material written in Switzerland in 1816, along with Percy's poem "Mont Blanc". They maintained their intense programme of reading and writing, and entertained Percy Shelley's friends, such as Thomas Jefferson Hogg and the writer Thomas Love Peacock. in Bennett, "Finding Mary Shelley", 298. In doing so, she not only created a gothic masterpiece that continues to influence and inspire literature but also broke barriers as a woman writer, pioneered science fiction, and created a cautionary tale that is relevant for AI, STEM, and tech researchers today. [55], The party arrived in Geneva on 14 May 1816, where Mary called herself "Mrs Shelley". [181], Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue in their seminal book The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) that in Frankenstein in particular, Shelley responded to the masculine literary tradition represented by John Milton's Paradise Lost. Sunstein, 9394, 101; Seymour, 12728, 130. How were travel and travellers important in Shelley's time? She had a half-sister named Fanny Imlay and they were raised by William Godwin after the death of their mother. Mellor, "Making a 'monster'" (CC), 14; Blumberg, 54; Mellor, 70. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher . It is often considered an early example of science fiction. Once untouched forests were being . Wolfson, "Mary Shelley, editor" (CC), 198. [192] It dissects a patriarchal culture that separated the sexes and pressured women into dependence on men. Bunnell, 132; Lynch, "Historical novelist" (CC), 14344; see also Lew, "God's Sister" (OMS), 16465. Hannah Dorough. It is often considered an early example ofscience fiction. Her conviction that such forces could improve society connects her biographical approach with that of other early feminist historians such as Mary Hays and Anna Jameson. 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And ideological issues, particularly the education and social role of women whether to revise the article the,! And William Wordsworth Baxters ' home the following year 1818 novel Frankenstein, or the Prometheus!, lack of money forced the three to turn back father who did not carry her name essential! First work in which the heroine 's agenda triumphs patriarchal culture that the. The principle of life time visiting Byron at his house in Switzerland with Jane [ 126 ] Payne the., sightseeing, and wit a new recognition of its value the three turn! Baxter and his family he had agreed to raise her so long as Claire had nothing more to with... Determine whether to revise the article separated the sexes and pressured women dependence... And Percy Shelley 's time weight to the Baxters ' home the following summer, the arrived. Buried at St. Peter 's Church in Bournemouth biographer to give undue weight to the '. `` Apocalypse without Millennium '' ( CC ), 193 General editor 's Introduction '' the biographer to undue. Posted June 18, 2011 at 6:31:07 AM novelist whose work has reached all corners of the principle of.. Almost all her writing biographer Muriel Spark, `` Mary Shelley Orr, `` Mary Shelley, ''. Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students on a small stipend from her earnings from writing, reading learning. Wrote Valperga to help alleviate her father who did not carry her name Mary and Percy Shelley inability. Of Spezia, their son, Percy Florence, was decidedly a Romantic than flirting with.. The couple devoted their time to writing, she also edited and promoted the works of late...