Here are some facts about Mary Shelley.
- Mary Shelley was born in London in 1797.
- Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, the writer and philosopher, and her father was, William Godwin, a novelist and philosopher.
- Ten days after Mary was born, her mother died of puerperal fever.
- As a child, Mary was well-educated, by her father and private tutors, and she read many of the books in her father’s library.
- Mary met the poet and philosopher, Percy Bysshe Shelley, in the 1810s. They fell in love and moved to France in 1814. They returned to England later that year.
- In May 1816 Mary and Percy travelled to Geneva to spend the summer with Lord Byron. During this holiday, Mary Shelley started to write the story that would become Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus.
- Percy Shelley, Mary’s husband, died in a boating accident in 1822 in Italy, and Mary eventually returned to England.
- In addition to Frankenstein, she wrote several other novels, including: Perkin Warbeck, Lodore and Falkner, Mathilda, and The Last Man.
- Mary Shelley died on 1st February 1851 at the age of 53, probably from a brain tumour.
- Frankenstein was first adapted for the stage in 1823, and it has been adapted for the screen numerous times, including: Frankenstein (directed by Mel Brooks) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (directed by Kenneth Branagh).
- Mary and Percy had four children, Clara, William, Clara Everina and Percy. Only Percy survived into adulthood.
