Mary Shelley and the myth of creation

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. La Revue hebdomadaire : romans, histoire, voyages, 12 mai 1923

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley stands out amongst English women writers. Born in 1797 in a London suburb, this author published not only the most astonishing novel of the century, but also essays and travel accounts. Daughter of the feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft and the political author William Godwin, her mother died when she is only 11 days old.

In 1814, Mary began an affair with a married man Percy Bysshe Shelley, a poet and author of plays and political pamphlets. His life on the outside of the boundaries of social conventions and his idealism made him famous and sometimes hated by his contemporaries. Mary Shelley became his second wife. In May 1816, Mary, Percy and their son travelled to Geneva to stay with Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati, in Cologny, on the edge of Lake Geneva.
 

Vue de Genève depuis Cologny. Voyage pittoresque de Genève à Milan, par le Simplon, 1811

Very interested in the scientific discoveries of their time, the young writers referred to the experiments of the poet and natural philosopher Erasmus Darwin, who claimed to have revived dead matter. Having fun reading German ghost stories, the friends each decided to write their own fantasy story.  That is how Mary conceived the idea of Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus , published in 1818. The epistolary novel speaks about the creation by a young Swiss scholar, Viktor Frankenstein, of a living being assembled from fragments of dead human bodies. Horrified by the monstrous aspect of the creature he had brought back to life, the young Frankenstein abandoned him. However, the creature, endowed with intelligence and a sense of persecution, sought revenge.
 

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, ou Le Prométhée moderne, Paris : Corréard, 1821, p. 133. 

Written when she was aged 19, Frankenstein was considered to be a gothic novel when it was first published. A masterpiece of this literary genre, strongly impregnated with philosophical reflections, the text is also a precursor to science-fiction. The novel inspired many adaptations, be it for the theatre or the cinema, and became a literary “myth”. The story of Frankenstein and his creatures remain archetypes of fantasy and horror, such as they are depicted in the American director James Whale’s 1931 film Frankenstein featuring the actor Boris Karloff.
 

 
Ric et Rac : grand hebdomadaire pour tous, 9 juillet 1932

It was in Italy that the Shelley couple and Lord Byron found a political freedom that they were not afforded at home, spending their time writing, touring and mingling with society. In 1822, Percy drowned during a storm. From then on, Mary Shelley returned to England where she makes a living from writing, and dedicated her life to the education of her son whilst getting Percy Shelley’s written works published.
 

Further reading

the articles available on the website of the British Library.
And read the previous blog posts in the series « English Women Writers »

Isabelle Le Pape
(translated from French by Claire Carolan)