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Biographies of People in
Mary Shelley's Family Tree |
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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley | Percy
Bysshe Shelley | Claire Clairmont | George
Gordon Byron | Mary Wollstonecraft | William
Godwin | Fanny Imlay | Gilbert
Imlay | Harriet Westbrooke |
Percy Florence Shelley
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Mary Wollstonecraft
Shelley
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Percy
Bysshe Shelley
The English Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was already married when he fell
in love with Mary Godwin in 1814. Like Mary's radical parents, Mary
and Percy believed that love, not law, must determine marriage. The
couple eventually married after Percy's first wife, Harriet Westbrooke,
committed suicide in 1816. Percy edited Mary's Frankenstein.
Mary was devastated when he drowned off the northern Italian coast
in July 1822. She edited several posthumously published collections
of his poetry. |
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Claire Clairmont
When William Godwin married his widowed neighbor, Mary gained a step-sister,
Claire. she became a constant companion to Mary and Percy Shelley,
though Mary was often annoyed by her presence. In 1816 Claire proposed
the trip to Geneva (where Frankenstein was conceived) so she
could pursue her love affair with the English poet Lord Byron. By
summer's end, Byron grew tired of Claire and traveled on to Italy.
Claire bore his daughter, Allegra, in England in January 1817 and
continued to live with the Shelleys. |
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George Gordon Byron
The English poet Lord Byron achieved overnight literary fame in 1812
when the first two cantos of his Childe Harold's Pilgrimage were
published. Rumors about his romantic liaisons, including an affair
with his half-sister Augusta Leigh, caused Byron to leave England
in 1816. That summer he vacationed with Percy, Mary, and Claire Clairmont
at Lake Geneva. There he proposed the ghost-story-writing contest
that inspired Frankenstein. Mary Shelley and Lord Byron remained
friends until his death in Greece in 1824. |
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Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley's mother, was a radical in her day,
advocating social and educational equality for men and women in A Vindication
of the Rights of Women (1792). Although she and her lover, William
Godwin, were philosophically against marriage, they wed when she
became pregnant. Wollstonecraft died eleven days after her daughter
Mary was born. Mary idolized her. She declared her love for Percy
Shelley at her mother's grave in London's St. Pancras cemetary. |
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William Godwin
William Godwin, the English philosopher and author of Political
Justice (1793), let his daughter Mary read widely and attend intellectual
gatherings at his home. One of Godwin's followers, the poet Percy Bysshe
Shelley, fell for young Mary and in 1814 the two ran off to Europe.
Disgusted, Godwin treated the couple badly, but reconciled with them
after they married in December 1816. Although Godwin was often a cruel,
intolerant father, Mary Shelley dedicated Frankenstein to him. |
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Fanny
Imlay
After an affair with Gilbert Imlay, Mary Wollstonecraft bore a daughter,
Fanny Imlay. Gilbert later rejected Mary and they never married. After
Mary's death, William Godwin adopted the young Fanny whom he raised
as his own child. Fanny was always a troubled girl. In October 1817
she checked into a hotel where she took an overdose of laudanum and
died. News of Mary Shelley's half-sister Fanny's death reached her
as she was writing Frankenstein. |
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Gilbert
Imlay
Gilbert Imlay served as an army officer during the Revolutionary War.
He later moved to Europe where he served as a business speculator,
trader, and American diplomat. In 1773, he met and began an affair
with Mary Wollstonecraft in Paris. After the birth of their daughter,
Fanny, Mary went to Scandinavia where she managed his business interests.
While separated, Gilbert began another affair and rejected Mary. The
two never married. |
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Harriet
Westbrooke
Though not in love with her, Percy Bysshe Shelley married Harriet Westbrooke
because she was in love with him. Shelley met and fell in love with
Mary Godwin during a separation from Harriet. As he did not believe
in the legal state of marriage, Shelley felt he did nothing wrong by
leaving Harriet for Mary. Shelley financially supported Harriet until
she committed suicide by drowning in the Serpentine. Shelley was denied
custody of their two children, Ianthe and Charles. |
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Percy Florence
Shelley
Percy Florence Shelley was fourth and only surviving child of Percy
and Mary Shelley. Like his father, he attended Eton and Oxford, although
he lacked the same intellectual passion of his parents. Upon the death
of his grandfather, he acceded the baronetcy in 1844. His wife,
Lady Jane St. John, came to oversee the establishment of the Victorian
reputations of Percy and Mary Shelley. He and his wife had no
children. |
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