Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Shelley
-
Standard Name: Shelley, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin
Married Name: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Pseudonym: Mary S.
Pseudonym: Mrs Caroline Barnard
MS
, long known almost exclusively for Frankenstein, is now being read for her later novels and her plays, as well as for her journals and letters. Her editing, reviewing, biographical, and journalistic work entitle her to the designation woman of letters. She is an important figure among women Romantics, and a channel for the reformist ideals of the 1790s forwards into the Victorian era.
EF
fully shared in her husband's friendship with William Godwin
. She exchanged visits with him, sometimes with one or other of her children, from the time she first entertained him in November 1788. He...
He was already famous (or, to some, infamous) for his writings when he and Mary Wollstonecraft
became lovers in August 1796. They married on 29 March 1797 (although both of them disapproved of the institution...
Family and Intimate relationships
Percy Bysshe Shelley
In 1814 PBS
's successive half-serious erotic relationships with other women were all displaced by his love for Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin
, the daughter of parents, one dead and one living, whom he passionately admired...
Family and Intimate relationships
Mary Cowden Clarke
Both Novellos were close friends of Mary Shelley
during the 1820s. Mary gave Vincent a lock of the hair of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft
.
Crook, Nora. “Fourteen New Letters by Mary Shelley”. Keats-Shelley Journal, Vol.
62
, pp. 37-61.
43
Family and Intimate relationships
Elizabeth Inchbald
Mary Shelley
said of EI
: Very susceptible to the softer feelings, she could yet guard herself against passion.
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America.
107
Although she was a flirt, she was known to be chaste.
Conger, Syndy McMillen. “Multivocality in Mary Shelley’s Unfinished Memoirs of Her Father”. European Romantic Review, Vol.
9
, No. 3, pp. 303-22.
306
Family and Intimate relationships
Tillie Olsen
Tillie Lerner's instructor and inspiration in political radicalism, Eugene Konecky
, was also interested in erotic relations with young girls.
Reid, Panthea. Tillie Olsen: One Woman, Many Riddles. Rutgers University Press.
37, 41
In summer 1927 she took my first lover—probably a young man named...
Family and Intimate relationships
Mary Wollstonecraft
After a long and painful labour, MW
bore her second daughter, Mary
.
Tomalin, Claire. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft. Penguin.
275-6
Education
Mary Cowden Clarke
MCC
later remembered her responsibility, when very young, of escorting her two next younger brothers to their school.
Clarke, Mary Cowden. My Long Life. Dodd, Mead.
10
Unlike them, she began her education at home. She writes fondly about the rich array of...
death
William Godwin
WG
, novelist, political philosopher, widower of Mary Wollstonecraft
, and father of Mary Shelley
, died in London.
Sherburn, George, and William Godwin. “Introduction”. Caleb Williams, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, p. vii - xx.
xvii
death
Percy Bysshe Shelley
PBS
, poet and husband of Mary Shelley
, drowned near La Spezia in Italy when his boat capsized in a storm.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
