At The Time Mary Wollstonecraft Was Writing, Women’s Education Tended To Focus Mainly On

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

British author

Alternate titles: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin

What is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley best known for?

What did Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley write?

Who were Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's parents?

When was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley married?

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, (born August 30, 1797, London, England—died February 1, 1851, London), English Romantic novelist best known as the author of Frankenstein.

The only daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, she met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1812 and eloped with him to France in July 1814. The couple were married in 1816, after Shelley's first wife had committed suicide. After her husband's death in 1822, she returned to England and devoted herself to publicizing Shelley's writings and to educating their only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. She published her late husband's Posthumous Poems (1824); she also edited his Poetical Works (1839), with long and invaluable notes, and his prose works. Her Journal is a rich source of Shelley biography, and her letters are an indispensable adjunct.

Mary Shelley's best-known book is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818, revised 1831), a text that is part Gothic novel and part philosophical novel; it is also often considered an early example of science fiction. It narrates the dreadful consequences that arise after a scientist has artificially created a human being. (The man-made monster in this novel inspired a similar creature in numerous American horror films.) She wrote several other novels, including Valperga (1823), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837); The Last Man (1826), an account of the future destruction of the human race by a plague, is often ranked as her best work. Her travel book History of a Six Weeks' Tour (1817) recounts the continental tour she and Shelley took in 1814 following their elopement and then recounts their summer near Geneva in 1816.

Late 20th-century publications of her casual writings include The Journals of Mary Shelley, 1814–1844 (1987), edited by Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert, and Selected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1995), edited by Betty T. Bennett.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

English literature: The novel: from the Gothic novel to Austen and Scott

Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
(1818) is a novel of ideas that anticipates science fiction. James Hogg's
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
(1824) is a subtle study of religious mania and split personality. Even in its more-vulgar examples, however,…
science fiction: Proto-science fiction

In 1818 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley took the next major step in the evolution of science fiction when she published
Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus
. Champions of Shelley as the "mother of science fiction" emphasize her innovative fictional scheme. Abandoning the occult folderol of the conventional Gothic novel,…
Percy Bysshe Shelley

…Shelley fell in love with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, daughter of William Godwin and his first wife,
née
Mary Wollstonecraft. Against Godwin's objections, Shelley and Mary Godwin eloped to France on July 27, 1814, taking with them Mary's stepsister Jane (later "Claire") Clairmont. Following travels through France, Switzerland, and Germany, they…