Female writer: Mary Shelley (1797- 1851)

Mary W. Shelley (1797- 1851)

Who is she?

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née, ​​Godwin) was a British narrator, playwright, essayist, philosopher and biographer considered a key figure in romanticism.

Mary had an unconventional life. Daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft (pioneer of feminist thought and author of "Vindication of women's rights" and deceased shortly after giving birth to her) and William Godwin (pioneer of anarchist thought) in her childhood she was in contact with the movements defended by their parents and literature. She initiated a sentimental relationship (that today we would consider polyamorous) with Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the political followers of his father who was already married at that time. The two, along with Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, lived in France and traveled throughout Europe; Upon her return to England, Mary was pregnant. For the next two years she and Percy faced social criticism, constant debt and the misfortune of the death of their daughter, born prematurely. They married in late 1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.

In 1818 they left Britain and moved to Italy, where their second and third children died before Shelley gave birth to their last child, the only one who survived, Percy Florence. In 1822, her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned when his sailboat sank during a storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the education of her son and her career as a professional writer. The last decade of her life was plagued by diseases, probably linked to the brain tumor that would end her at 53 years old.

Although Mary was considered an important writer during her life, after her death she became remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. In 1970, historians have begun to study Mary Shelley's achievements in more detail through Emily Sunstein's biography, Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, which analyzes all of Mary's letters, diaries and works in their historical context. .

What has she written?

Mary Shelley's life revolved around literature. Among her works are novels, letters, essays, poems, dramas, biographies, short stories ... all of them with autobiographical, political and feminist overtones. Some of her most relevant works are:

• Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus (1818): is her best known work and is considered a classic reference and within the genre of the Gothic novel and the first science fiction text of literature. It deals with issues related to scientific morality and the creation and destruction of life through a story of terror.
• Mathilda (1819): deals with the themes of incest and suicide and in it, Mathilda, on the verge of death tells the story of her father's confession about the love he felt towards her, followed by his suicide by drowning.
• Valperga; o Life and adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (1823): narrates the adventures of the despot of the early fourteenth century Castruccio Castracani, a real historical figure.
• Poemas Póstumos by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1824) and Poetic Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1839): are the set of poems collected and edited by Mary after the death of her husband.
• The Last Man (1826): is an apocalyptic science fiction novel that tells the story of a world of the future that has been devastated by a plague.
• Perkin Warbeck (1830): is a historical novel based on the English character that gives its name and who was an aspirant to the throne of King Henry VII claiming to be Richard, Duke of York, the second son of King Edward IV.
• Lodore or The beautiful widow (1835): a novel evidences a great commitment of the text with ideological and political themes, centered on the life of the wife and daughter of the character that gives title to the work, Lord Lodore.

 What has she said?

There are many relevant quotes that Mary has written, including highlight ...

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

― Frankenstein.

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

― Frankenstein.

“Her countenance was all expression; her eyes were not dark but impenetrably deep; you seemed to discover space after space in their intellectual glance.”

― The Last Man

“For the first time she knew and loved the Spirit of good and beauty, an affinity to which affords the greatest bliss that our nature can receive.”

― Lodore.

Why should we not forget her and her work?

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née, Godwin) was a brilliant writer and, despite having enjoyed fame and recognition during her life (both for her own works and those she edited for her husband) it is unfair for people to remember her as the "daughter of" or "wife of". We must not forget neither her literary achievements (she "invented" science fiction) nor the political, feminist, educational and social ideology that she defended and practiced throughout her life. In this way, Mary Shelley has earned in its own right to be one of the main figures of romanticism.

-R.