Mary Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797–1851), later known as Mary Shelley, is best recognized for her gothic novel, Frankenstein (1818). Her mother was the prominent feminist and philosopher, Mary Wollstonecraft, who died eleven days after Mary’s birth. Mary was educated by her father, the liberal political philosopher William Godwin, and later fell in love with one of his followers, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Their relationship was steeped in scandal: Percy was married, Mary became pregnant, and the two eloped to Europe. The scandal soon turned to tragedy when their premature daughter died, and Percy’s first wife later took her own life. Percy and Mary married in 1816, but they remained social outsiders and were burdened by debt.

As a teenager, Mary spent time living with a family in Dundee, Scotland, where she later wrote that she first felt the imaginative awakening that led to the idea for Frankenstein. She began developing and writing the novel in 1816 while staying near Lake Geneva as a guest of Lord Byron, during a stormy summer that famously inspired discussions of ghost stories.

After moving to Italy in 1818, the Shelleys suffered further heartbreak when two of their children died. Mary’s only surviving child, Percy Florence, was born in 1819. Widowed after Percy Shelley’s death in a sailing accident in 1822, Mary returned to England and devoted herself to raising her son and advancing her writing career. Her life was marked by chronic illness and continued grief, which profoundly influenced her literary explorations of life, death, and the boundaries of human endeavor. She died at the age of 53 from a brain tumor.

Though best known for Frankenstein , Shelley also wrote a number of short stories that showcase her skill in gothic, supernatural, and tragic themes. Her works are featured in our collections: Gothic, Ghost, Horror & Weird Library, Halloween Stories, and Short Stories for High School. Her work is also referenced in our Gothic Literature Study Guide.

"If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!"