Mary Shelley was born in 1797 to influential philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. She fell in love with poet Percy Shelley, though they could not initially marry as he was still wed. In 1816 at age 19, while on vacation with Lord Byron in Switzerland, Mary had a nightmare that inspired her to write her classic Gothic novel Frankenstein. Published in 1818, Frankenstein was an immediate bestseller. After Percy's death, Mary supported herself through additional writing, though none were as impactful as her first work. She died in 1851 as an established author.

1. ENGLISH

2. MARY SHELLEY
LIFE
Mary Shelley was born in 1797, the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and
William Godwin, two important personalities of the century, influenced by the French
Revolution; her mother was one of the first feminists in English history , and her father
was a philosopher and novelist. Their house was visited by some of the most famous
writers of the day, like Percy Shelley. Percy and Mary fell in love with each other but
they couldn’t marry because he was already married with Harriet. In July 1814 they
went to France; later Shelly decided to rent a country house on the Lake Geneva, near
Villa Diodati, where he created a literary group to work on a collection of German
ghost stories. Mary and the famous romantic poet Byron were in this group.
It was there that she started to write Frankenstein, in 1816, after a night in which
Mary had a nightmare. When she wrote Frankenstein, she was only 21 years old. When
Shelley’s wife died, they could get married in 1816. Published in 1818, the gothic novel
Frankenstein was immediately a bestseller.
When Percy died, Mary came back to England, where she lived with her only
surviving son. She wrote other works but they are not as important as Frankenstein.
She died in 1851.