00:30Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
00:37Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein
00:40Writer Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin on August 30, 1797 in London, England.
00:49She was the daughter of philosopher and political writer William Godwin and famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft,
00:58the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Women.
01:02Sadly for Shelley, she never really knew her mother, who died shortly after her birth.
01:07Shelley never got along with her stepmother.
01:09Her stepmother decided that her stepsister Jane should be sent away to school,
01:14but she saw no need to educate Shelley.
01:17While she didn't have a formal education, she did make great use of her father's extensive library.
01:23Shelley could often be found reading, escaping from her often challenging home life into her imagination.
01:30Shelley also found a creative outlet in writing.
01:34She published her first poem, Monsieur Nongtongpa, in 1807 through her father's company.
01:41During the summer of 1812, Shelley went to Scotland to stay with an acquaintance of her father, William Baxter, and his family.
01:48There, she experienced a type of domestic tranquility she had never known.
01:53In 1814, Mary began a relationship with poet Percy Bice Shelley.
01:59Percy Shelley was a devoted student of her father, but he soon focused his attentions on Mary.
02:05He was still married to his first wife when he and the teenage Mary fled England together that same year.
02:12Mary and Percy Shelley traveled about Europe for a time.
02:15They struggled financially and faced the loss of their first child in 1815.
02:20Mary delivered a baby girl who only lived for a few days.
02:25The following summer, the Shelleys were in Switzerland with Jane Claremont, Lord Byron, and John Polidori.
02:32The group entertained themselves one rainy day by reading a book of ghost stories.
02:37Lord Byron suggested that they all should try their hand at writing their own horror story.
02:42It was at this time that Mary Shelley began work on what would become her most famous novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus.
02:53Later that year, Mary suffered the loss of her half-sister Fanny, who committed suicide.
02:59Another suicide, this time by Percy's wife, occurred a short time later.
03:05Mary and Percy Shelley were finally able to wed in December of 1816.
03:09She published a travelogue of their escape to Europe, history of a six-weeks tour, while continuing to work on her soon-to-be-famous monster tale.
03:18In 1818, Frankenstein debuted as a new novel from an anonymous author.
03:25Many thought that Percy by Shelley had written it since he penned its introduction.
03:29The book proved to be a huge success.
03:32That same year, the Shelleys moved to Italy.
03:35Made a widow at age 24, Mary Shelley worked hard to support herself and her son.
03:41She wrote several more novels, including Valpergia and the science fiction tale The Last Man.
03:48She also devoted herself to promoting her husband's poetry and preserving his place in literary history.
03:55For several years, Shelley faced some opposition from her late husband's father, who had always disapproved his son's bohemian lifestyle.
04:03Mary Shelley died of brain cancer on February 1, 1851, at age 53, in London, England.
04:12She was buried at St. Peter's Church in Bournemouth, laid to rest with the cremated remains of her late husband's heart.
04:20It was roughly a century after her passing that one of her novels, Mathilde, was finally released in the 1950s.
04:26Her lasting legacy, however, remains the classic tale of Frankenstein.
04:33This struggle between a monster and its creator has been an enduring part of popular culture.
04:39In 1994, Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in a film adaptation of Shelley's novel.
04:45Her work has also inspired some spoofs, such as Young Frankenstein.
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