Mary Shelley
The author of Frankenstein
Who was Mary Shelley?
Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, London,
in 1797. She was the second child of the feminist philosopher, educator
and writer Mary Wollstonecraft and the first child of the philosopher,
novelist and journalist William Godwin.
In 1814, Shelley began a romance with one of her father's political
followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Together with
her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, she and Percy left for France and
travelled through Europe.
Upon their return to England, Shelley was pregnant with Percy's child.
Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt
and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late
1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.
The trip to Lake Geneva
In 1816, Mary Shelley and her partner famously spent a summer with Lord
Byron, John William Polidori and Claire Clairmont near Geneva,
Switzerland. In an unusual rainy summer, Lord Byron proposed that they
"each write a ghost story".
One night, unable to sleep, he became possessed by her imagination as
she beheld the grim terrors of her "waking dream". She began writing
what she assumed would be a short story. With Percy Shelley's
encouragement, she expanded this tale into her first novel,
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, published in
1818.
The publication
Frankenstein was first published anonymously. It was dedicated to William Godwin, Mary’s father, and Percy Shelley wrote the preface. Because of these connections, many assumed that Percy Shelley was the author. This myth continued even after Frankenstein was reprinted in Mary’s name. In fact, some people are still arguing that Percy authored the book. While he edited the book and encouraged Mary to expand the story into a novel, actual authorship is a stretch.