Things were starting to get a little hot and heavy. Percy and Mary were wildly attracted to one another, but this was hardly the place or time to be intensifying a relationship.
They were visiting Mary’s mother’s grave today.
This wasn’t altogether unusual, since Mary’s mother had passed away shortly after her birth, and she visited regularly—including with Percy.
For Mary and Percy, the graveyard wasn’t a place of macabre morbidity, but more one of mystery… and even romance.
In the throes of passionate rebellion, these young lovers consecrated their love in a strange act of defiance and desire. They even used Mary’s mother’s gravestone as a pillow! Under the gaze of the full moon, the boundaries between life and death seemed to blur.
Or so the story goes.
The story seems to have begun from a letter written by Percy himself a few years later.
Was he bragging about a conquest that never happened? Was he trying to amplify his wife’s literary legend, providing a veneer of mystery to young Mary Shelley’s legacy?
Did the two “do it” on top of Mary’s mother’s grave after all?
I don’t know for sure, but
tells this story ridiculously well here:Do check out Julia’s Substack if you’re so inclined! I have made her weekly videos a nice part of my routine.
Here’s what we do know for certain about Mary Shelley.
She was born in London on August 30, 1797, to philosopher William Godwin and pioneering feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother was a passionate advocate for women’s rights, but she died shortly after Mary’s birth.
William, Mary’s dad, was politically radical for the time. His magnum opus, Political Justice, argued against the institutions of government, organized religion, and the accumulation of property. He believed that these institutions were inherently corrupt and oppressive. “Proto-anarchist” might be a reasonable description of some of his views—that’s how radical this dude was.
William also argued against the institution of marriage, which he regarded as a symbol of ownership. This view must have had an enormous influence on Mary’s rebel streak. Between this Georgian-era punk dad and ultra-feminist (for the time) mom, young Mary was in a unique position to change the world.
This brings us up to Percy Bysshe Shelley. At age sixteen, Mary began a very controversial relationship with a married man. They eloped in 1814, facing social ostracism and financial difficulties—not because Mary was 16, but because Percy was married.
It was under these circumstances that Mary and Percy found themselves staying with their friends Lord Byron and Dr. John Polidori, both published writers at a house near Lake Geneva. The weather wasn’t cooperative, so the group found themselves confined indoors.
To stave off the boredom, they read German ghost stories from the book Fantasmagoriana. Inspired by these tales of the supernatural, Lord Byron proposed a challenge: each member of the party should write their own scary story.
Everyone accepted eagerly, and Percy, Byron, and Polidori each set to work, crafting their narratives. Mary was driven not only by the desire to contribute, but also by a need to prove herself as a writer amongst such esteemed company.
Night after night, she racked her brain for a story that was unique and compelling. She found inspiration in the world of science, like so many authors after her have done.
Contemporary science in 1816 was centered around electricity. Just a few decades earlier, Luigi Galvani had reanimated a dead frog by sending electrical currents through it, giving credence to the idea that electricity and life were closely related. If dead tissue could be reanimated, Mary wondered what limits there might be.
She later described the moment of inspiration as a waking dream, where she envisioned a scientist animating life from lifeless matter.
Haunted by this image, Mary began to craft a narrative centered on Victor Frankenstein, a young, ambitious scientist who creates a living being. This creature, composed of various body parts, is initially an object of fascination for Frankenstein, but quickly becomes a source of horror and regret. The story delved deep into themes of creation, responsibility, and the consequences of playing God.
The novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published in 1818, when Mary was just twenty years old.
What were you doing when you were 20? My great literary contribution at that age was probably interviewing the Misfits. Mary Shelley was busy inventing a new literary genre.
Frankenstein was a groundbreaking work that blended Gothic horror with emerging ideas in science, effectively helping to lay the groundwork for science fiction. The novel's exploration of the moral and ethical implications of scientific advancement was ahead of its time, resonating with the rapid scientific changes of the era.
This piece is part of
, a celebration of all things horror. It’s hard to imagine where the horror genre would be without Frankenstein’s monster.It’s also hard to imagine sci-fi without Frankenstein. Shelley’s ability to weave science into a cautionary tale is part and parcel of modern science fiction, and her brilliance is recognized today much more than it ever was during her lifetime. Even still, nowhere near enough folks know about Mary Shelley, and how modern sci-fi was created from within the furnace of the macabre.
In my own lifetime, I’ve seen her status begin to be elevated within the literary canon. She was incredibly influential across two genres of literature, a feat seldom seen anywhere, by anyone.
Let’s help make sure this trend continues.
How much of Mary’s story did you know before reading this?
You don't want to know.
My first thought was, where is this going, I’m here for it. Haha
I didn’t know anything about her other than she wrote this particular book. Very cool stuff!