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Mary Shelley Authors Frankenstein

WEVE all heard of Frankensteins monster, the green skinned, blocked headed monster with bolts in his neck. Yet Frankensteins monster began life as a character in a novel published not quite 200 years ago in England.

The novel, Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus, tells the story of a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque version of a human being from stolen body parts, and brings the monster to life to tragic consequences. It is considered to be one of the very first works of science fiction. It was published on March 11, 1818 by Mary Shelley, who was only 23 years old at the time.

As we recognize Womens History Month during March, we can celebrate the fact that the worlds first science fiction writer was a young woman.

Mary Godwin Shelley was born in London in 1797. Her parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, were philosophers, writers, liberal political activists and early advocates of womens rights. Marys mother died when she was only 11 days old, so Mary was raised by her father and stepmother.

Mary was raised to cherish the memory, work and political ideals of her mother. Her father provided Mary with an informal but broad education even though girls were not usually educated at the time. Mary spent time abroad, in Scotland and at boarding school.

Mary was just a teenager when she fell in love with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a friend of her fathers. Shelley was several years older than Mary and married, and her father forbade the romance. When Mary was 17 and Percy was 22 they left England for France, taking her stepsister Claire with them, and leaving Percys pregnant wife behind. The couple officially married two years later after Shelleys first wife died.

Mary, Percy and her sister lived a nomadic and, for the times, wildly unconventional life traveling about Europe. They devoted themselves to reading and writing, but they rarely had any money, and their lives were plagued by tragedy, scandal and Percys adultery. Three of their four children died during childhood. Only their fourth child survived.

In the summer of 1816, Mary and Percy were living in Switzerland with the poet Lord Byron when the three decided to have a contest to write a gothic or horror story. This is how Mary came to write Frankenstein. She was the only one of the three who completed the assignment. The book was published in 1818 anonymously, and then reprinted with Mary Shelley as the author.

After Percy Shelley died in a boating accident in Italy in 1822, Mary Shelley returned to England and a more conventional life. She devoted herself to raising her son, getting Percy Shelleys poetry published and recognized and working on her own writing career. She died of a brain tumor at age 53.

Picture Above: This portrait is believed to be of Mary Godwin Shelley.

New York Post, December 15, 2010
Written by: Robin Wallace

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