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Mary Shelley Facts

Mary Shelley Facts
Mary Shelley, the English author of Frankenstein, was born on August 30th, 1797 in London, England. She was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, to William Godwin, a political writer and philosopher, and Mary Wollstonecraft, a feminist and writer. Her mother died when she was only days old, and Mary and her half-sister Fanny were raised by their father. He remarried and Mary did not get along with her step-mother. Mary spent a lot of time reading and writing. Her first published work was a poem Mounseer Nongtongpaw in 1807. In 1814 Mary met married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and they ran away together. While Mary and Percy were in Switzerland visiting Lord Byron and Jane Clairmont, and John Polidori, she wrote the beginnings of Frankenstein.
Interesting Mary Shelley Facts:
Mary and Percy Shelley's first child, a girl, died when she was only a few days old, in 1815.
Mary's half-sister Fanny committed suicide, and soon after Percy's wife did as well, leaving Mary and Percy free to marry.
Mary and Percy Shelley married in December 1816.
In 1818 Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus was published anonymously.
Mary and Percy moved to Italy, and they had two more children that did not survive. In 1819 their fourth child Percy Florence was born. He was the only one of their four children to survive and grow to adulthood.
In 1822 Percy Shelley died in a drowning accident while sailing in the Gulf of Spezia.
Mary Shelley was a widow at 24. She continued to write in an effort to support herself and her child.
Mary Shelley's novel Valperga: Or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca, was published in 1823.
Mary Shelley's novel The Last Man was published in 1826.
Mary Shelley's novel The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance was published in 1830.
Mary Shelley's novel Lodore was published in 1835, Falkner: A Novel was published in 1837, and Mathilda was published in 1959.
Mary Shelley also wrote travel narratives, short stories, poetry, articles, biographies, and children's literature.
After Percy drowned, Mary Shelley tried to promote her late husband's work.
Mary Shelley died on February 1st, 1851 at the age of 53. She had brain cancer. She was buried at St. Peter's Church in Bournemouth next to her mother, her father, and her husband's cremated remains.
Mary Shelley's most famous work was Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. It was published anonymously when Mary was only 20 years old in 1818. In 1823 it was published under her own name.
In 1814 Mary traveled through Europe. She traveled near Frankenstein Castle where it was believed that strange experiments had taken place a few centuries before. She also traveled to Geneva's region in Switzerland where much of Frankenstein's story occurs.
Frankenstein was written on a challenge by Lord Byron to his guests to write the best horror story.
Frankenstein has been adapted into multiple plays, screenplays, and television shows.
Frankenstein is actually the last name of the story's main character Victor Frankenstein, who created the creature. It is not the name of the creature itself, although the creature became known as Frankenstein as the story spread.


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