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Shelley Mary 1797 - 1851 (54)

Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.


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Frankenstein



Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (London, 30 August 1797 - 1 February 1851) was an English writer best known for her novel Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. She was the daughter of the philosopher William Godwin, one of the founders of the anarchist movement. and author Mary Wollstonecraft who died two weeks after her birth. Her mother was one of the first feminists, a free and pioneering spirit of her time who had written, among other things, a book in which she ridiculed the notion that woman is a fragile and charming jewel of the home, upholding equality, while in another argued that women also have strong sexual desires, something unheard of at the time. Her books provoked a lot of protests and ridicule, for almost a hundred years its value was unrecognized and considered eccentric. Mary did not have time to meet her but she loved her through her work, she often went to her grave and read her books for hours, all her life she did not stop reading them again. Mary's education was undertaken at home by her father. She left him at the age of 17 for France and Switzerland, with a married friend, the poet Percy Shelley. Her father disowned her but she was in love and started living with Percy who became her new mentor.

In May 1816 they were found on Lake Geneva, accompanied, among others, by Lord Byron. In a contest between them over who would write the best horror story, Mary had an original idea that would later be transformed into Frankenstein. In December 1816, Percy's wife committed suicide by falling into Lake Hyde Park after a long period of depression. Percy had offered to come and stay with them, claiming that he could well live with both women, she had not accepted. After her death, he married Mary, which normalized relations with her father. At Percey's urging, he finished Frankenstein in 1817. The work was published the following year and was a huge success. In the following years they settled in Italy following a kind of coenobitic coexistence with many friends and artists. Their lives will be marked by the death of three babies, only one child will survive and grow up. On July 8, Percy had gone sailing but due to a storm he fell into the sea and drowned. Mary returned to England and devoted herself to raising her son and writing, never repeating Frankenstein's success. She died on February 1, 1851 of brain cancer.