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Dossier 1 Mary Shelley and Frankenstein
The friends have been reading German ghost stories. One day, Lord Byron suggests they write their own ghost stories that are as frightening as the ones in the book.
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Mary Shelley and Frankenstein
Quick facts
Name: Mary Shelley Born: in Somers Town, London on August 30th, 1797 Died: London, on February 1st, 1851 Education: Mary received an unusual education for a girl of the time. She read many books on Roman and Greek history.
Key works: Frankenstein (1818), Mathilda (1819), Maurice or the Fisher's Cot (1820), Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), Falkner (1837).
The Young Genius
Mary Shelley was 18 when she began Frankenstein in 1816, a fact that should be celebrated. In 1818, the novel was published without a named author at first. It has not been out of print since.
‘We will each write a ghost story’
In her 1831 introduction to the novel, Mary tells us: ‘In the summer of 1816, we visited Switzerland, and became the neighbours of Lord Byron. At first we spent our pleasant hours on the lake, or wandering on its shores; […] But it proved a wet, [unpleasant] summer, and [non-stop] rain often
Lord George Gordon Noel Byron (by Richard Westall).
[kept] us for days in the house. Some volumes of ghost stories, translated from the German into French, fell into our hands. […] ‘We will each write a ghost story,’ said Lord Byron.’
Villa Diodati, on Lake Geneva, where Lord Byron was staying.
‘Have you thought of a story?’
For several days, Mary thought and thought about her story, but no ideas came. ‘Have you thought of a story? I was asked each morning, and each morning I was forced to reply with a [deeply embarrassing no].’ (1831 Introduction)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (by Amelia Curran, 1819).
Mary and Percy
Mary Shelley travelled to Lake Geneva with her lover, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Percy Shelley admired Mary’s father, political thinker William Godwin, and was a frequent visitor to their house. They began an affair when Mary was 16, and in 1815, she gave birth, too early, to a baby who soon died.
Fear and Loss
Mary was depressed after the death of her baby, but in 1816 gave birth to William, who travelled with Mary and Percy. Frankenstein explores many ideas of being a parent, losing a child or a parent – Mary’s mother, an important early feminist political thinker, Mary Wollstonecraft, had died a few days after giving birth to her.
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Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley were strong characters, Byron was even arrogant – it is possible that their over confidence is part of the inspiration for Victor.
Mary Wollstonecraft (Mary's mother) wrote: ‘My main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she [a woman] be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all.’
Bringing the Dead Back to Life
One evening, Byron, Percy, and Dr John Polidori (also staying in Geneva, and who that summer wrote a story about a creature that drank blood – The Vampyre), were discussing the experiments of Luigi Galvani (see The Science of Frankenstein, pages 58–61) who was using electricity to try to bring the dead back to life. Was it possible to create life?
The Waking Dream
Mary was deeply affected by the discussion about Galvani. They went to bed late, but, writes Mary, ‘When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. My imagination [took hold of me] and guided me.’ She saw ‘the pale student […] beside the thing he had put together. I saw the [disgusting creature] of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life. […] ‘He sleeps; but he is awakened; he opens his eyes; [see] the horrid thing stands at his bedside, opening his curtains, and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculative eyes.’
One of Luigi Galvani's experiments with electricity.
Mary had a powerful dream – it gave her the idea for Frankenstein. ‘What terrified me, will terrify others!’ The words she wrote eventually became part of Chapter 5.
8 ‘Victor Frankenstein becoming disgusted at his creation.’ Illustration from the frontispiece of the 1831 edition.
‘I have found it!’
Mary was terrified. ‘[As fast] as light and as cheering was the idea that broke in upon me. ‘I have found it! What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the [creature] which had haunted my midnight pillow.’ [The next day] I announced that I had thought of a story. I began that day with the words, It was on a dreary night of November.’
Encouragement and Support
‘At first I thought but of a few pages—of a short tale;’ Mary tells us, ‘but Shelley urged me to develop the idea at greater length.’ The weather changed for the better and Byron and Shelley left for ‘a journey among the Alps,’ but Mary continued to write.
Tragedy Strikes
Over the next few years, Mary lost her son William and another child, eventually giving birth to a fourth child, Percy, who survived. Mary spent several years in Italy, but a year after her husband – the couple married in 1816 – died in a boating accident on the Italian coast in 1822 near Lerici, she returned to England. Here, she cared for her son and wrote several novels, as well as helping with biographies of Byron and Shelley.
Lerici.
Last Years
Mary’s financial problems ended when her son’s rich grandfather died, leaving him property and money. But from 1839, Mary had long periods of illness, including headaches which stopped her writing. She died, possibly of brain cancer, in London, in 1851 at the age of 53. 9
