Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley

by Charlotte Gordon

  The team at Random House UK, especially Sarah Rigby, whose comments and editorial suggestions helped tighten and clarify the narrative, and whose good cheer gave me strength in the final stretches.

  The outstanding literary biographers whose groundbreaking research and insightful analysis of Wollstonecraft and the Shelleys made it possible for me to write this dual biography: Lyndall Gordon (Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft), Richard Holmes (Shelley: The Pursuit), Miranda Seymour (Mary Shelley), Janet Todd (Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life), and Claire Tomalin (The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft).

  The editors who made the letters and journals of Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and Mary Wollstonecraft available to the public: Betty T. Bennett, Marion Kingston Stocking, and Janet Todd.

  The Pforzheimer Collection’s Shelley and His Circle volumes, edited by Kenneth Neill Cameron, Donald Reiman, Doucet Fischer, and others.

  The staff and librarians at the New York Public Library, the Bodleian Library, the British Library, and the Honnold/Mudd Library at the Claremont Colleges, particularly Elizabeth Denlinger, Bruce Barker-Benfield, and Carrie Marsh.

  My research assistant, Eva Schlitz, for reviewing the manuscript and formatting and organizing the notes and bibliography; Allie Graham and Helen Gordon for invaluable help with technology, images, and copyrights; and Todd Wemmer for the photographs.

  My early readers: Nola Anderson, Laura Harrington, and Gabrielle Watling.

  Endicott College, especially President Richard Wylie and Vice President and Dean of the Undergraduate College Laura Rossi-Le, and the Endicott Library staff, especially Betty Roland and Brian Courtemanche, for providing me with the support I needed to write this book. Thanks also to Mark Herlihy, Gene Wong, and my many colleagues and friends at the college.

  My loyal friends: Heather Atwood, Carolyn Cooke, Paul Fisher, Laila Goodman, Jo Kreilick, Vicki Lincoln, Phoebe Potts, Ruth Rich, Chris Stodolski, Gabrielle Watling, and Jim Watras.

  My siblings: Richard, Liz, Jacques, and Helen.

  Brooks, who has lived with the Marys for as long as I have. And Mark, who has supported us through all stages of the writing process, from cooking dinner and taking care of the family to reading the opening and closing lines of this book more times than I can count.

  And finally, my mother, who has been my inspiration, always.

  NOTES

  ABBREVIATIONS AND SHORT TITLES USED

  MW Mary Wollstonecraft

  MWS Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, later Mary Shelley

  CC Jane Clairmont, later Claire Clairmont

  PBS Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Godwin William Godwin

  Daughters Mary Wollstonecraft, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters

  Frankenstein Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

  The French Revolution Mary Wollstonecraft, A Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution

  Friends C. Kegan Paul, William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries

  HOW Diane Jacobs, Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft

  Journals CC Marion Kingston Stocking, ed., The Journals of Claire Clairmont

  Journals MWS Paula Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert, eds., The Journals of Mary Shelley

  Letters from Abroad Mary Shelley, ed., Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments

  Letters from Sweden Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

  Letters MW Janet Todd, ed., The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft

  Letters MWS Betty T. Bennett, ed., Selected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Letters PBS Frederick Jones, ed., The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley (2 vols.)

  Maria Mary Wollstonecraft, The Wrongs of Woman

  Mary Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Fiction

  Matilda Mary Shelley, Matilda

  Memoirs William Godwin, ed., Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman

  MS Miranda Seymour, Mary Shelley

  MS:R&R Emily Sunstein, Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality

  MW:ARL Janet Todd, Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life

  Political Justice William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice

  Recollections Edward Trelawny, Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron

  Shelley’s Friends Frederick Jones, ed., Maria Gisborne and Edward E. Williams, Shelley’s Friends: Their Journals and Letters

  “Supplement” W. Clark Durant, “Supplement” in Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, ed. William Godwin

  TCC Marion Kingston Stocking, ed., The Clairmont Correspondence

  VAL Lyndall Gordon, Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft

  Vindication of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

  CHAPTER ONE: A DEATH AND A BIRTH (1797–1801)

  1 William Godwin did not think Emily W. Sunstein, Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 26.

  2 “greater and wiser” This passage, from “The Elder Son,” is Mary Shelley’s description of the feelings of one of her fictional father-raised characters. Charles E. Robinson, ed., Mary Shelley: Collected Tales and Stories (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), 256. In her later fiction, Mary represented the love between fathers and daughters as a sacred bond, drawing a direct link between herself and her fictional daughters, writing, “When a father is all that a father may be…the love of a daughter is one of the deepest and strongest, as it is the purest passion of which our natures are capable.” C. Kegan Paul, William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1876), vol. 1, 276.

  3 “The mouth was too much” Paul, Friends, 1:290.

  4 “outleap” of London William Hone, The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information (London: 1838), 317.

  5 A muffin seller Miranda Seymour, Mary Shelley (New York: Grove, 2000), 42. This passage is based on Seymour’s description of the Polygon as well as Edward Walford’s in “Somers Town and Euston Square,” Old and New London (1878), 5:340–55. Also available online at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45241.

  6 Godwin worked until one Sunstein, MS:R&R, 25.

  7 Together they enjoyed Ibid., 26.

  8 “When you were hungry” Camilla Jebb, Mary Wollstonecraft (Chicago: F. G. Browne & Co., 1913), 281.

  9 In the late afternoons Sunstein, MS:R&R, 21.

  10 “quick,” “pretty” Paul, Friends, 2:214.

  11 “knew me instantly” Una Taylor, Guests and Memories: Annals of a Seaside Villa (London: Oxford University Press, 1924), 28.

  12 Coleridge was a spellbinding One listener described letting the poet’s voice “flow” over him like “a stream of rich distilled perfumes.” James Gillman, The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (London: William Pickering, 1838), 1:112.

  13 “[My father] never caressed me” “The Elder Son,” Robinson, ed., Mary Shelley: Collected Tales and Stories, 256.

  14 “using the air” Ernest Hartley Coleridge, ed., Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1895), 1:359.

  15 “gave the philosopher” Ibid., 321.

  16 “I pun, conundrumize” Samuel T. Coleridge to John Thewall, 1797, in Coleridge, ed., Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1: 220.

  17 “fly like stags” Ernest Hartley Coleridge, ed., The Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (London: Oxford University Press, 1912), 30. I am indebted to Michael Dineen for pointing out this poem.

  CHAPTER TWO: MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: THE EARLY YEARS (1759–1774)

  1 “[A mother’s] parental” Mary Wollstonecraft, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” and “The Wrongs of Woman; or, Maria,” ed. Anne Mellor, Longman Cultural Editions (Pearson, 2007), 185.

  2 Spitalfields silk weavers As the nineteenth-century historian Edward Walford remarked, “Riots among the Spitalfields weavers, for many a centur
y were of frequent occurrence.” See “Spitalfields,” in Old and New London (London: 1878), 2:149–52. Also available online at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45086.

  3 Although Edward Senior Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (London: Penguin Books, 1982; reprint, 1990), 87. Porter discusses the discrepancies between rich and poor in the eighteenth century, citing the voices of contemporaries to demonstrate the anger of the lower and middle classes, individuals whose socioeconomic status closely resembled that of the Wollstonecrafts.

  4 “an old mansion” Elizabeth Ogborne, The History of Essex: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1814), 161.

  5 “despised dolls” William Godwin, Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 2nd ed. (London: J. Johnson, St. Pauls Church Yard, 1798), 13.

  6 “deputy tyrant” Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria (1798). In Mary Wollstonecraft: Mary and Maria; Mary Shelley: Matilda. Edited by Janet Todd, 55–148. London: Penguin Classics, 1992, 95.

  7 “quick and impetuous” Godwin, Memoirs, 7.

  8 the “agony” of her childhood Ibid., 11.

  9 peopling the countryside Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary (1788). In Mary Wollstonecraft: Mary and Maria; Mary Shelley: Matilda. Edited by Janet Todd, 1–54. London: Penguin Classics, 1992, 8.

  10 “gaze on the moon” Ibid.

  11 “without daring to utter a word” Godwin, Memoirs, 8.

  12 little secrets Wollstonecraft, Mary, 9.

  13 “the whole house” Wollstonecraft, Maria, 95.

  14 It was a shock Godwin, Memoirs, 15.

  15 There were stores Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century, 215.

  16 handsome doors Ibid.

  17 Inside, when the sun shone Beverley Minster, “History and Building,” http://beverleyminster.org.uk/visit-us/history-and-building. Janet Todd also provides a description of the Minster in Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2000), 10.

  18 With indignation Wollstonecraft, Vindication of Woman, 159.

  19 Local dialect Yorkshire Dialect Society, “Word Recognition,” http://www.yorkshiredialectsociety.org.uk/word-recognition/ (accessed August 23, 2014). See also “A Fact Sheet on Yorkshire Dialect,” West Winds, http://www.westwindsinyorkshire.co.uk/attachments/AnAncientTongueWestWinds.pdf (accessed August 23, 2014).

  20 “If you happen to have any learning” John Gregory, A Father’s Legacy to His Daughters (London: 1774), quoted in Wollstonecraft, Vindication of Woman, 124.

  21 “with as much solicitude” Arthur Ropes, ed. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Select Passages from Her Letters (London: 1892), 237.

  22 Jane Arden This overview of the friendship is taken from the letters of Wollstonecraft to Jane Arden. Janet Todd, ed., The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 1–18.

  23 “If I did not love you” MW to Jane Arden, c. mid–late 1773–11/16/1774, ibid., 13.

  24 “Love and jealousy” Ibid., 14.

  25 “I spent part of the night in tears” Ibid., 15.

  26 electricity, gravitation Lyndall Gordon, Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft (New York: Harper Perennial, 2006), 12.

  27 It had become fashionable “Knowledge is become a fashionable thing,” Benjamin Martin, an itinerant lecturer, observed, “and philosophy is the science a la mode.” Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century, 240.

  28 including her in the lessons Todd, MW:ARL, 14–15.

  29 when the Ardens suggested Gordon, VAL, 13.

  30 “The oddest mortal” MW to Jane Arden, mid–late 1773, Letters MW, 9. Both Jane’s and Mary’s words come from the same letter, as Mary quoted a passage of Jane’s that particularly delighted her and responded to it.

  31 “did not scruple” MW to Jane Arden, ?early 1780, ibid., 23.

  32 London’s lunatics The Hoxton Trust, “Real Hoxton: The Lunatic Asylums,” http://www.realhoxton.co.uk/history.htm#lunatic-asylums.

  33 “the most terrific of ruins” Wollstonecraft, Maria, 67.

  34 “Melancholy and imbecility” Ibid.

  CHAPTER THREE: MARY GODWIN: CHILDHOOD AND A NEW FAMILY (1801–1812)

  1 “Is it possible” Paul, Friends, 2:58.

  2 Mary-Jane clasped her hands Maud Rolleston, Talks with Lady Shelley (London: Norwood Editions, 1897; reprint, 1978), 35.

  3 Mary Wollstonecraft’s perfections Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published only ten months after Wollstonecraft’s death, was a complicated book, but it did publicize his adoration of his dead wife: he calls her “a person of eminent merit” and one of the “illustrious dead” and asserts, “There are not many individuals with whose character the public welfare and improvement are more intimately connected, than with the author of the Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1–3). The women he courted would have found it difficult to escape Wollstonecraft’s shadow.

  4 “Meet Mrs. Clairmont” May 5, 1801, Victoria Myers, David O’Shaughnessy, and Mark Philip, eds., The Diary of William Godwin (Oxford: Oxford Digital Library, http://godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk, 2010).

  5 lines drawn horizontally September 10, 1797, ibid.

  6 a four-letter abbreviation (“Panc”) March 29, 1797, ibid.

  7 a series of dots, dashes For a complete account of Godwin’s code when referring to his sexual relationship with Wollstonecraft, see St. Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys, 497–503.

  8 In the second week of July July 13, 1801, Myers, O’Shaughnessy, and Philip, eds., Diary of William Godwin.

  9 “Manage and economize” Paul, Friends, 2:75.

  10 “soured and spoiled” Ibid., 77.

  11 “possession of a woman” William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, 3rd ed., 2 vols. (London: Robinson, 1798), 2:508.

  12 “Do not…get rid of all your faults” Paul, Friends, 2:77.

  13 Her first love Mary-Jane’s real background has only recently been uncovered. For a comprehensive account of the current state of research on Mary-Jane’s history, see Seymour, MS, 46–47.

  14 “second mamma” Sunstein, MS:R&R, 32. See also Seymour, MS, 46.

  15 “excessive and romantic” MWS to Maria Gisborne, October 30–November 17, 1824, Betty Bennett, ed., The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 3 vols. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980–88).

  16 Mary-Jane’s own daughter One friend of the family recalled that Jane was “rather unmanageable.” Florence Marshall, The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (London: Bentley, 1889), 1:33–34.

  17 Poor Jane For a detailed description of the Clairmont/Godwin conflicts, see Seymour, MS, 49–50.

  18 Mary would use “Clairmont” Sunstein, MS:R&R, 35.

  19 It was not that Mary-Jane was always cruel For a description of the complicated relationship between Mary-Jane and the Godwin girls, see Paul, Friends, 2:108; Seymour, MS, 47–50; Anne K. Mellor, Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters (New York: Routledge, 1989), 12–13.

  20 On the evening of Coleridge’s visit Paul, Friends, 2:58.

  21 “Ah! Well a-day!” Coleridge, ed. Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 191.

  22 what he termed “deliquium” This is Godwin’s word, which begins to appear frequently in his diaries around this time. July 17, 1803, Myers, O’Shaughnessy, and Philip, eds., Diary of William Godwin.

  23 a diagnosis of mental stress Seymour, MS, 52.

  24 41 Skinner Street Much of this description is based on Seymour’s account, ibid., 57.

  25 Mary delivered her opinions Sunstein, MS:R&R, 59. Sunstein describes how Mary enjoyed “disputations” with her peers and family.

  26 “les goddesses” Aaron Burr, The Private Journal of Aaron Burr, During His Residence of Four Years in Europe, vol. 2, ed. Mathew L. Davis (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838), 318.

  27 “The Influence of government” Ibid.,
307.

  CHAPTER FOUR: MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: HOXTON AND BATH (1774–1782)

  1 “My philosophy” MW to Jane Arden, ?April 1781, Letters MW, 28.

  2 “began to consider” Wollstonecraft, Mary, 8.

  3 Mary tried to confide Wollstonecraft’s heroine, Mary, attempts to tell her mother secrets, but her mother “laughs at” her. Ibid., 9.

  4 He introduced Mary to the ideas of John Locke Godwin, Memoirs, 16–18. Later, Mary remembered how the Clares “took some pains to cultivate my understanding…they not only recommended proper books to me, but made me read them.” Letters MW, MW to Jane Arden, early 1780, 24.

  5 “creatures of the same species and rank” John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration, ed. Paul Negri (Dover Thrift Editions reprint, 2002), 2.

  6 “no more power” Ibid., 37.

  7 “sanctuary of liberty” Edmund Burke, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, 3 vols. (London: Rivington, 1801), 3:124.

  8 busily employed Godwin, Memoirs, 21.

  9 By the time the visit was over “Before the interview was concluded,” Godwin would later write, “[Mary] had taken, in her heart, the vows of an eternal friendship.” Ibid., 22.

  10 William Curtis Gordon, VAL, 16. See Gordon for a more detailed description of Curtis’s work.

  11 “masculine,” Mary said MW to Jane Arden, ?early 1780, Letters MW, 25.

  12 “I could dwell for ever” MW to Jane Arden, ?early 1780, ibid. Mary’s relationship with Fanny was “so fervent, as for years to have constituted the ruling passion of her mind.” Godwin, Memoirs, 20.

  13 “I know this resolution” MW to Jane Arden, ?early 1780, Letters MW, 25.

  14 “decent personal reserve” Wollstonecraft, Vindication of Woman, 157–58.