❝The beginning is always today.❞
-- Mary Shelley
English writer Mary Shelley was best known for her horror, gothic novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus published in 1818. She was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. Her father was philosopher and poet William Godwin and her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, who shortly died when Shelley was born. Mary's stepmother sent Mary's stepsister to school, but not Mary.
Mary had no formal education, she learned from her father's vast library. She was often seen reading, sometimes by her mother's gravestone. She'd daydream and would write. In 1814, she started a relationship with poet Percy Shelley. He was William Godwin's student. Percy was married to his first wife, the same year Mary and Percy fled England together.
A year later when they were travel, they arrived in Switzerland with Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron, and John Polidori. They read ghost stories one evening to entertain themselves. Lord Byron suggested that they should write their own ghost / horror story. This is when Mary begun Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. She debuted her novel under an anonymous author, it became a big success. She continued writing several novels, even after the tragic death of her husband, including Valperga and the science fiction tale The Last Man (1826).
Discussion Questions:
What or who has inspired you to read the stories you do? One step further is, who has inspired you to write your stories?
Do you believe Mary Shelley would have written Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus eventually without Lord Byron's prompt or challenge? Or not at all?
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus being one of the first gothic genre stories, what elements do you believe contributes and inspires writers today, in the same genre, to have in their writings?
Always open to additional questions and comments on about Mary Shelley and her works.
If there is another author you would like to see a discussion on, please post your suggestion in the comments below for a chance to be featured in a future chapter!
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