Mary Shelley

by Miranda Seymour

  Editorial Works

  Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley (John & Henry Leigh Hunt, 1824)

  The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 4 vols. (Moxon, 1839); one-volume edition, with added postscript (Moxon, 1840)

  Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments, By Percy Bysshe Shelley, 2 vols. (Moxon, 1840 and 1841)

  Bibliographical Essays

  Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain and Portugal, 3 vols., forming part of Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopedia (Longman, 1835 and 1837). In volume 1, Mary wrote all the lives with the exception of Dante and Ariosto; in volume 2, it is beyond doubt that she wrote the lives of Pietro Metastasio, Carlo Goldoni, Vittorio Alfieri, Giambattista Marino, Vincenzo Monti and Ugo Foscolo. In volume 3, a recently published letter suggests that she may have written the life of Alonzo de Ercilla, the only one of the twenty-one essays which had hitherto been in doubt. The rest had already been attributed to her.

  Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, 2 vols., forming part of Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopedia (Longman, 1838 and 1839). All the essays in these two collections appear to have been written by Mary Shelley.

  This list is not comprehensive. For a longer, more speculative catalogue of Mary’s works, including many anonymously published articles, reviews and poems, the reader is referred to Emily W. Sunstein, Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality (1989), Appendix B.

  FURTHER READING

  For a full background reading list, see The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1, edited by Betty T. Bennett (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), pp. xxix–xxxvi and The Clairmont Correspondence, 1, edited by Marion Kingston Stocking (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), pp. xlix–lvii.

  The following works were especially useful and/or stimulating in researching the present biography.

  Betty T. Bennett, Mary Diana Dods, A Gentleman and a Scholar (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994)

  Edmund Blunden, Shelley (Collins, 1946)

  Marilyn Butler, Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries: English Literature and Its Background 1760–1830 (Oxford University Press, 1981)

  John Buxton, Byron and Shelley: The History of a Friendship (Macmillan, 1968)

  David Crane, Lord Byron’s Jackal (HarperCollins, 1998)

  Mario Curreli, Una certa Signora Mason (Edizioni ETS, 1997)

  Jane Dunn, Moon in Eclipse: A Life of Mary Shelley (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1978)

  Eleanor Flexner, Mary Wollstonecraft (Coward, McCann, 1972)

  Celina Fox (ed.), London: World City 1800–1840 (Yale University Press, 1992)

  R.S. Garnett, (ed.), Letters about Shelley (Hodder & Stoughton, 1917)

  Elizabeth Grant, Memoirs of a Highland Lady, 2 vols. (1898; Canongate, 1988)

  R. Glynn Grylls, Claire Clairmont: Mother of Byron’s Allegra (Murray, 1939)

  ——Mary Shelley: A Biography (Oxford University Press, 1938)

  ——William Godwin and His World (Odhams Press, 1953)

  Alethea Hayter, A Sultry Month: Scenes of London Literary Life in 1846 (Faber, 1975)

  Richard Holmes, Shelley: The Pursuit (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974)

  Leigh Hunt, Autobiography, ed. Roger Ingpen (Dutton, 1903)

  Don Locke, William Godwin: A Fantasy of Reason (Routledge, 1980)

  Peter H. Marshall, William Godwin (Yale University Press, 1984)

  Ann Mellor, Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters (Routledge, 1988)

  Sylvia Norman, Flight of the Skylark (University of Oklahoma Press, 1954)

  Julian Offray de la Mettrie, L’Homme Machine (1645), L’Homme Plante (1648), intr. Justin Leiber (Hackett, 1994)

  Cecilia Powell (ed.), Italy in the Age of Turner (Merrell Holberton, 1998)

  William St Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys (Faber, 1989)

  Carla Sanguinetti, Mary Shelley, Dialogo d’amore (Edizione Giacche, 1997)

  Iain Sinclair, Lights Out for the Territory (Granta, 1997)

  Muriel Spark, Mary Shelley, Child of Light (1951; revised edition, Constable, 1988)

  Francis Spufford and Jenny Uglow (eds.), Cultural Babbage (Faber, 1996)

  Emily Sunstein, Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989)

  Janet Todd, Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000)

  Claire Tomalin, Shelley and His World (Thames & Hudson, 1980)

  ——The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft (Penguin Books, revised edition, 1992)

  Newman Ivey White, Shelley, 2 vols. (Seeker & Warburg, 1947)

  Lewis Wolpert, The Unnatural Nature of Science (Faber, 1992)

  Jonathan Wordsworth, Ancestral Voices (Cassell, 1991)

  ——Visionary Gleam (Cassell, 1993)

  ——The Bright Work Grows (Cassell, 1997)

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Special thanks are due to the editors and general staff at John Murray, who have been exemplary in balancing help with restraint. I would especially like to thank Grant Mclntyre, Gail Pirkis, Caroline Westmore and Howard Davies. Thanks to Dr Bruce Barker-Benfield at the Bodleian Library and to Doucet Fischer and Stephen Wagner at the Pforzheimer Collection at the New York Public Library, to Christopher Fletcher at the British Library, to Marilyn Brooks, Peter Cochran, Clarissa Campbell Orr and Nora Crook at Anglia University, to William St Clair, Diana Scott-Kilvert, Claire Tomalin and Janet Todd for all their advice and help, to members of the Byron Society, to the curators of Keats House in Hampstead and to Catherine Payling at the Keats-Shelley Memorial House in Rome. I am grateful as always for the patience, advice and good humour of all at the London Library. Thanks too to Douglas Matthews for elevating the index to a work of art. Anybody working on the lives of the Shelleys is indebted to Lord and Lady Abinger, whose family continue to add to the magnificent collection of manuscripts preserved as the Abinger collection at the Bodleian Library.

  Thanks are also due to Mr and Mrs Normaile Baxter, Professor Massimo Bacigalupa, Elaine Benedetti, Mrs Katy Bedford, to Adrian Blunt at the Inner Temple Library, Philippa Gregory, Jane Ridley, Stella Tillyard, and to Carl Stead for intriguing thoughts on the ‘Neapolitan charge’. Thanks also to Denise Chantrey and Colin Johnson for research undertaken in the Bath Record Office and local newspapers. I am much indebted to Mario Curreli at the University of Pisa, to Richard Conrad for musical advice, to the staff of the Dundee Library, Ian Flett, to Graham Dennis, to Miss Dugan at Cupar Library, to the Dazzi family, to Susan Djabri, to Christopher Edwards and, with huge gratitude, to Margaret Elston. I am grateful for being introduced to Mary Shelley’s Rome by Helen Guglielmini and her husband. Thanks to Enid Foster at the Garrick Theatre Museum, to Hugh Stevenson at the Glasgow Art Gallery, to Ann Hardie at the Wellcome Institute, Harriet Cullen, Richard Holmes, to Jeremy Knight at the Horsham Museum and to the staff at the Houghton Library, Cambridge, Mass., and of the Wren Library, Cambridge. Thanks, too, to the staff at the Guildhall Library, Holborn Library and at the Museum of London and the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Library of the Royal College of Surgeons was a haven and an invaluable source of information. Thanks to Deborah Jenkins at London Metropolitan Archives. At the Lerici Museum, I owe thanks to Carla Giunchi and to Tyler Lincoln for introducing me to the pleasure of reading Mary Shelley in Italian. Abbie Mason gave me food for thought about Fanny Imlay; Diane Middlebrook and Ann Mellor contributed and added to the pleasure of my research. Jacob Simon was very kind in advising on the research into some mystery portraits; Charles Robinson offered some dazzling insights into Frankenstein in his lecture inaugurating the chair in Byron Studies at Nottingham University. Sam Stych was wonderfully hospitable at Bagni di Lucca, Gabriella Tealdi brightened life at Pisa. Special thanks to Oliver Morton and Nancy Hynes, for reasons they will know. Thanks, too, to Bill Zachs for sharing some fascinating material with me. Thanks, as always but never with more warmth, to Anthony Goff, for being everything a perfect agent could be, and to Anthony Gottlieb, for
being everything a perfect husband could be. And thanks to all the friends and family, God bless them, who kept me entertained and reassured throughout what has often seemed a dauntingly ambitious project.

  The faults are all my own.

  The author and publisher would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce illustrations: Plate 1, Kenneth Garlick and the Royal Academy; 2, 17, 20, 32, 43 and 56, National Portrait Gallery, London; 3, 14, 40, 44 and 49, © Copyright The British Museum; 8, Kent County Council, Local Studies Library, Parker Collection; 10, Nottingham City Council, Leisure and Community Services, Local Studies Library; 11, Mary Claire Bally-Clairmont and Cristoph Clairmont von Gonzenbach; 12, 15, and 16, Private Collection; 13, 18, 19, 41 and 63, The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; 23, The Pierpoint Morgan Library, New York. 1949.3; 24, 25, 26, 34, 47, 51, 53 and 55, John Murray; 27, Bibliothèque Public et Universitaire, Geneva; 28, F50.1, ‘Mer de Glace, Valley of Chamouni, Savoy’, from ‘Liber Studiorum’, engraved by the artist, 1812 (etching) by J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) (Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK/Bridgeman Art Library); 29, Abinger Shelley Collection, The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; 30, Mrs B.G. Freeman; 33 and 35, Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection, New York Public Library; 46, The Funeral of Shelley, 1889, by Louis Edouard Paul Fournier (b.1857) (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK/Bridgeman Art Library; Board of Trustees: National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside); 50, Gift of George R. White and Howard Payne, 1915, Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Reproduced with permission. © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All rights reserved; 54, National Gallery of Ireland; 57, Harrow Local History Collection/Guildhall Library; 58, V & A Picture Library; 61 and 62, Lord Abinger; 67, Topham Picturepoint; 68, AKG London.

  INDEX

  Abbreviations: MS = Mary Shelley; PBS = Percy Bysshe Shelley

  A’Court, Sir William, 1

  Adams, Joseph, 1n

  Aesop’s Fables: Godwin issues, 1

  Africa: and slave trade, 1

  Age, The (journal), 1

  Aglietti, Dr Francesco, 1

  Ainsworth, William Harrison, 1

  Albert, Prince Consort, 1, 2

  Albion House, Marlow, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n

  Alderson, Amelia see Opie, Amelia

  Aldini, John (Giovanni), 1, 2

  Alfieri, Vittorio, 1, 2, 3; Mirra: MS translates, 1

  Allen, William, 1

  Alps, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Ancilla, Suora see Parker, Elizabeth

  Anderloni, Faustino, 1

  Annual Register, 1

  Anti-Jacobin Review, 1, 2, 3n

  Apollonicon (organ), 1

  Arabella Row, London, 1

  Ariosto, Ludovico, 1

  Armstrong, Thomas, 1

  Arnold, Matthew, 1

  Arnold, S.A., 1n

  Arnot, John, 1

  Arundel, Sussex, 1, 2

  Ascham, John, 1, 2

  Athenaeum (journal), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  Austin, Alfred, 1

  Austria: subjection of Italy, 1, 2; ousted from Milan, 1

  Babbage, Charles, 1, 2

  Backman, Elias, 1n

  Badams, John, 1

  Badams, Louisa (née Holcroft), 1, 2, 3, 4

  Baden-Baden, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Bagnacavallo, 1, 2, 3

  Bagni di Lucca, 1, 2, 3

  Bagni di San Giuliano (near Pisa), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Balcombe, Sussex, 1

  Banks, Sir Joseph, 1

  Barlow, Joel, 1n

  Barnard, Caroline, 1; The Fisher Boy, 1

  Barnard, John George, 1

  Barrett, Elizabeth, 1

  Barruel, Augustin, Abbé: Memoirs, Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, 1

  Bartholomew Place see Kentish Town

  Bartlett, Mrs (Kentish Town landlady), 1, 2

  Bath: MS and Claire in, 1

  Baxter family, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Baxter, Christina (‘Christy’, ‘Kirsty’), 1, 2, 3, 4

  Baxter, Isabella see Booth, Isabella

  Baxter, Robert, 1, 2, 3

  Baxter, William Thomas, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Beauclerk family, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Beauclerk, Major Aubrey: MS’S attachment to, 1, 2; inherits Irish castle, 1 & n;

  MS’S disappointed hopes of marriage with, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  Julia Robinson spends year with in Ireland, 1;

  and wife’s death, 1;

  marriage to Rosa Robinson, 1, 2;

  MS remains friends with, 1;

  daughter’s death, 1;

  helps young Percy with political ambitions, 1

  Beauclerk, Caroline (later Aldridge), 1

  Beauclerk, Charles, 1, 2, 3

  Beauclerk, Charles George, 1, 2

  Beauclerk, Emily Charlotte (née Ogilvie), 1, 2

  Beauclerk, George, 1, 2

  Beauclerk, Ida (née Goring), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n

  Beauclerk, Rosetta (née Robinson; ‘Rosa’), 1, 2, 3, 4

  Beauclerk, Topham, 1

  Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, 1n, 2, 3; ‘The Last Man’, 1

  Beilby (resident in Livorno), 1

  Bell, Dr John, 1, 2, 3

  Belle Assemblée, La (magazine), 1

  Bellerophon, HMS, 1

  Bennett, Betty T, 1

  Benson, Christopher, 1

  Bentham, Jeremy, 1

  Bendey, Richard, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Bernardini, Marchesa, 1

  Berry, Alexander, 1n, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Berry, Elizabeth (née Wollstonecraft; MS’S cousin), 1, 2, 3 & n, 4, 5, 6

  Betsy, Sister see Parker, Elizabeth

  Bicknell, Mrs (of Lynmouth), 1n

  Biographical Keepsake (anon.), 1

  Biographical Keepsake, The (Christmas annual), 1

  Bishop, Eliza (formerly Wollstonecraft; Mary’s sister), 1, 2, 3

  Bishop, Sir Henry Rowley, 1

  Bishopsgate, Windsor, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; sequestered, 1, 2

  Blackmore, Mrs (of Lynmouth), 1 & n

  Blackwood, William, 1

  Blackwood’s Magazine, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Blake, William: illustrates Mary Wollstonecraft’s Original Stories, 1n, 2

  Blenkinsop, Mrs (midwife), 1

  Blessington, Marguerite, Countess of, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Blood, Fanny, 1, 2

  Blunden, Edmund: Shelley, 1

  Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1

  Boccella, Marchesa, 1n

  Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1

  Boinville, family de, 1

  Boinville, Harriet de, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

  Boissy, Marquise de see Guiccioli, Countess Teresa

  Bditi, Dr Antonio, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Bolivar (Byron’s boat), 1, 2, 3

  Bonaparte, Princess Pauline, 1

  Booth, David: friendship with Godwin, 1, 2; Jacobinism, 1;

  character, 1;

  rents Newburgh house, 1;

  first wife’s death, 1;

  second marriage to Isabella, 1, 2;

  rebukes MS on return from elopement, 1;

  financial ruin, 1;

  disapproves of Shelley ménage, 1;

  marriage relations with Isabella, 1, 2;

  insanity, 1

  Booth, Isabella (née Baxter): friendship with MS, 1, 2, 3; marries Booth as second wife, 1, 2;

  ms keeps letters from, 1;

  leaves MS’S letters unanswered, 1;

  financial ruin, 1;

  marriage relations, 1, 2;

  refused visit to MS by family, 1;

  in London (1818), 1;

  and PBS’S Rosalind and Helen, 1;

  alluded to in MS’S ‘Valerius’, 1;

  meets MS on return to London, 1;

  letters from MS in Paris, 1, 2;

  praises Mme Roland, 1;

  Melbourne promises financial help to, 1;

  MS applies to Royal Literary Fund for financial help for, 1, 2;

  MS invites to Brighton, 1;

  and unfriendly London society, 1;
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  MS writes to on hopes of grandchildren, 1;

  offers to visit MS in last illness, 1;

  young Percy grants allowance to, 1

  Booth, Margaret (née Baxter), 1, 2

  Boscombe Lodge, Bournemouth, 1, 2

  Boutourlin family, 1

  Bowring, (Sir) John, 1, 2n, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Braham, John, 1

  Brereton, Maria (Trelawny’s mother), 1

  Bright, Richard, 1

  Brighton, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Bristol: and slave trade, 1

  British Critic, 1, 2

  Brooke, Arthur see Claris, John Chalk

  Brooke, Maud, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Brougham, Henry, Baron, 1n, 2, 3, 4

  Broughty Ferry see Dundee

  Brown, Charles Brockden, 1

  Browning, Robert, 1; ‘Pauline’, 1

  Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 1

  Bulwer-Lytton, Edward (later 1st Baron), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Paul Clifford, 1;

  Pelham, 1

  Bulwer-Lytton, Rosina, 1

  Burghersh, Priscilla, Lady, 1, 2

  Burke, Edmund, 1, 2, 3n, 4, 5; Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1

  Burr, Aaron, 1, 2, 3, 4n

  Burton, Mr (daily tutor), 1, 2

  Bury, Lady Charlotte, 1

  Bury, Edward, 1

  Byron, Alba see Byron, Clara Allegra

  Byron, Annabella, Lady (née Milbanke; B’s wife), 1, 2n

  Byron, Augusta Ada (Byron’s daughter), 1

  Byron, Clara Allegra (Byron and Claire Clairmont’s daughter; ‘Alba’): born, 1, 2; Hunts take in, 1, 2;

  at Albion House, Marlow, 1, 2;

  parentage admitted, 1;

  PBS suspected of being father, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  Shelleys’ concern for care of, 1, 2, 3;

  baptized, 1 & n;

  MS’S concern for care of, 1;

  Byron assumes care of in Italy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;

  Hoppners take care of, 1, 2, 3, 4;