Frankenstein

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was a pioneering English Romantic novelist, essayist, and dramatist best known as the author of the Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). Her work is widely celebrated today as a foundational text of modern science fiction. Born in London, Mary was the daughter of two of England’s most prominent radical intellectuals: political philosopher William Godwin and pioneering feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother tragically died of an infection just eleven days after Mary was born, leaving her to be raised by her father. She grew up in a highly intellectual household, receiving a rich but informal education despite a frequently tense relationship with her later stepmother, Mary Jane Clairmont. In 1814, at just 16 years old, Mary began a passionate and scandalous romance with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was a follower of her father and already married. The two eloped to Europe, traveling through France, Switzerland, and Germany. After Percy's first wife committed suicide in late 1816, Mary and Percy were officially married. Mary's life was deeply marked by personal sorrow. She suffered several miscarriages and lost three of her children in infancy; only her son Percy Florence Shelley survived into adulthood. In 1822, disaster struck again when Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in a boating accident in Italy, leaving Mary a widow at the age of 24.