Transcript Mary Shelley Steve Wood TCCC Mary Wollstonecraft marries William Godwin on March 29; Wollstonecraft has one daughter, Fanny, by Gilbert Imlay. Wollstonecraft and Godwin are.

Mary Shelley
Steve Wood
TCCC
1797
Mary Wollstonecraft marries William Godwin on
March 29; Wollstonecraft has one daughter,
Fanny, by Gilbert Imlay.
Wollstonecraft and Godwin are known for their
social activism and liberal views.
Mary Wollstonecraft and William
Godwin
1797
Mary Wollstonecraft gives birth to Mary
Wollstonecraft Godwin on August 30.
Mary Wollstonecraft dies of an infection ten days
later.
1801
William Godwin marries Mary Jane Vial (also
known as Clairmont), who has two children:
Charles and Jane (later called Claire).
1803
Mary Jane Godwin gives birth to William
Godwin, Jr.
1812
Percy Bysshe Shelley
begins a
correspondence with
William Godwin in
January.
1812
On November 11, Mary
Wollstonecraft Godwin
meets Percy Shelley
when he and and his
wife Harriet Westbrook
dine with the Godwins.
She is 15; he is 20.
1814
On July 28, Mary and Percy Shelley elope to
France, accompanied by Claire Clairmont.
Despite his own views concerning sexual
freedom and marriage, William Godwin refuses
any communication with his daughter for the
next two and a half years. They take a six-week
tour through France, Switzerland, Germany, and
Holland.
1814
While in Paris, they leave behind a box of papers. Mary
will later suspect it to contain letters "George Byron"
uses to blackmail her in 1845.
They return to London in September. Mary is pregnant
when they return. Shelley eventually introduces Mary to
a friend, Thomas Jefferson Hogg.
In November, Shelley's wife Harriet gives birth to a son
(their second child).
1815
In January, Hogg claims to be in love with Mary,
while Percy may have been having an affair with
Claire.
On February 22, Mary gives birth to a daughter,
two months premature. The daughter dies on
March 26.
Almost immediately, Mary gets pregnant again.
1816
On January 24, Mary gives birth to a son,
William.
1816
Claire begins to carry on
an affair with Lord
Byron. Eventually, Mary,
Percy, and Claire leave
England to follow Byron
(and to avoid Percy's
creditors). They settle in
Geneva by the end of
May, and live there for
the summer.
1816
Mary begins Frankenstein in response to a ghost
story contest and a dream.
1816
The family, including the now-pregnant Claire, returns to
England at the end of the summer.
In October, Mary's half sister Fanny commits suicide.
In December, the drowned body of Shelley's wife
Harriet is found. Pregnant, she had been missing for a
month.
On December 30, Shelley and Mary are married, and
William Godwin finally reconciles with his daughter.
1817
Claire gives birth to Lord Byron's daughter (Alba, then
later named Allegra by her father) in January.
In March, Shelley is denied custody of his children by
Harriet.
Mary completes Frankenstein while she herself is
pregnant for the third time.
She gives birth to a daughter, Clara, on September 2.
1818
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is
published on March 11. Several reviewers
believe that Percy had actually written the novel.
1818
In the summer of 1818, Mary and her family
chase Byron around Europe, trying to reconcile
him with his daughter.
During a hurried journey in Italy in September,
Clara gets sick and dies.
1818
On December 27, an infant Elena Adelaide is
born in Naples. When the child is registered on
February 27, 1819, the parents are listed as
Percy Shelley and Marina Padurin. The identity
of this child remains a mystery. Some theories
claim the girl was Percy's illegitimate child; other
suggest that she was an infant he planned to
adopt in order to replace Clara.
1819
The Shelleys continue to live in Italy.
Mary gets pregnant again early in the year.
On June 7, their son William dies of malaria.
“We came to Italy thinking to do Shelley’s health
good – but the climate is not by any means
warm enough to be of benefit to him, yet it is that
that has destroyed my two children” (Letter from
June 29, 1819).
1819
On November 12, Mary gives birth to the only
child that would survive her and her husband;
they named this second son Percy Florence.
1820
Mary resumes writing.
The Shelley family is blackmailed over the
mysterious Elena Adelaide. That child dies in
June.
1821
Mary finishes Valperga.
1822
Allegra Byron dies in April.
Mary has a miscarriage on June 16.
Sometime after July 8, Percy Shelley drowns in
a sailing accident. His body is found on July 18.
1822
Lord Byron vows to
support Mary and Percy
Florence, but he soon
becomes involved in the
war for Greek
independence and
abandons her.
1823
Valperga is published in February.
Percy Shelley's father initially refuses to support
his grandson unless Mary gives him up; she
refuses.
A second edition of Frankenstein is published.
In July, Mary and her son Percy return to
England.
1824
Lord Byron dies in Greece.
“Byron has become one of the people of the grave –
Can I forget his attentions and consolations to me
during my deepest misery? Never. Beauty sat upon his
countenance and power beamed from his eye – his
faults being for the most part weaknesses induced one
readily to pardon them. Albe – the dear capricious
fascinating Albe has left this desert world” (Letter from
May 15, 1824).
1824
A volume of Percy's unpublished poems is
published, a volume edited by Mary with a
signed preface. Mary then learns that Shelley's
father will stop Percy Florence's allowance until
she both stops publication and promises not to
publish any more of her husband's writings in Sir
Timothy's lifetime. Mary reluctantly agrees.
1826
Mary's The Last Man is published.
It is an apocalyptic story of the end of the world,
a type of story that would become a staple of
science fiction.
It is also a thinly veiled portrait of both her
husband and Lord Byron.
1826
After the publication of The Last Man, Shelley’s father
temporarily cuts off his support.
Shelley’s son by his first wife dies, and Percy Florence
becomes Sir Timothy Shelley’s only male heir.
Mary continues to work to support herself and her son
by her writings. She writes a number of short stories
and novels, as well as critical works and other nonfiction. Most of her works did not appear under her
name, because of pressure from Shelley's father. They
often appeared as "From the author of Frankenstein."
1830
The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance is
published.
1831
Another edition of
Frankenstein is
published, this time with
some additions and an
introduction by Mary
Shelley.
1835
Lodore is published.
1836
William Godwin dies.
1837
Falkner, A Novel is
published. This is
Mary’s sixth and last
novel.
1838
Percy Shelley's father finally relents on allowing
his son's works to be published, although he
does not want any mention made of his son's life
in an introduction or biographical sketch.
1839
Mary's four-volume edition of Poetical Words of Percy
Bysshe Shelley is published; she dedicates the edition
to Percy Florence. She gets around the prohibition of
Shelley's father with her preface and notes to the
individual poems.
She also edits and has published her husband's
Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and
Fragments.
1841
Percy Florence graduates from Trinity College.
Mary's stepmother dies.
1844
Percy Shelley's father dies; Percy Florence
inherits his estate and title.
1845
Someone claiming to be Lord Byron's son tries
unsuccessfully to blackmail Mary.
1851
Mary dies on February 1.
Among her personal effects is found Percy’s
heart, wrapped in a copy of his poem “Adonais”
(written for his dead friend John Keats).