Biography for
Mary Shelley (I)

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Date of Birth

30 August 1797, London, England, UK

Date of Death

1 February 1851, London, England, UK (brain tumour)

Birth Name

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin

Spouse

Percy Bysshe Shelley

(30 December 1816 - 8 July 1822) (his death) 1 daughter, 2 sons

Trivia

She wrote the novel "Frankenstein" after a challenge by Lord Byron to his four friends staying at the Villa Diodati in Geneva in the summer of 1816 to write a ghost story. Some nights later Mary had a vision that inspired Frankenstein, based on a prior dream fifteen months before of her stillborn child being brought to life by the warmth of a fire. With the encouragement of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary produced a novel for publication eleven months later that was eventually published in early 1818.

Contracted smallpox in 1828, scarring her face for the rest of her life.

Her only novella, "Mathilda," while written in 1819, was not published until 1959. She wrote several historical novels and another science fiction tale "The Last Man" (1826).

Children: William Shelley, born January 14, 1816, and died June 7, 1818; Clara Everina Shelley, born September 2, 1817, and died September 24, 1817; and Percy Florence Shelley, born November 12, 1818, and died December 5, 1889, who succeeded his grandfather as the 3rd Baronet Shelley.

Completed "Frankenstein" when she was 19 though she had dreamt of the idea whilst still only 18.

Her remains (and those of her father) are interred at St Peter's Church in Bournemouth town centre in southern England.

Daughter of feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft.

Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who is also considered the first feminist, died giving birth to her. Her father, William Godwin, constantly blamed her for her mother's death and never forgave her.

Personal Quotes

No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for his happiness.

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