Synopses & Reviews
This comprehensive overview of Mary Shelley's life as an author frequently reads like an anthology of extracts from some of the most lurid and sensationalist novels of the early 19th century. After the stormy years of her relationship with Percy Shelley ended in his tragic death, Mary went on to raise her one surviving son, never sure of the loyalty of friends and threatened and intimidated by her dead husband's father. Shelley is known best as the author of
Frankenstein, and an important function of this book is to reassess her achievement as the author of seven novels, innumerable short stories, biography, travel writing, and as the first editor of Percy Shelley's poetry and prose.
About the Author
John Williams is Reader in Literary Studies at the University of Greenwich.
Table of Contents
Introduction * Parents * Early Years 1797-1814 * The Author of
Frankenstein 1814-1820 * The Wife of Shelley 1822-1826 * The Widow of Shelley 1822-1826 * Writing to Live 1826-1834 * Fiction and the Market Place:
Lodore and
Falkner 1834-1838 * The Editor of Shelley 1838-1839 * Ten Years Which Have Made Me Old