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Mary Shelley

Romance and Reality

Emily Sunstein
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Winner of the Prize for Independent Scholars from the Modern Language Association

Notable Book of the Year from The New York Times

Daughter of pioneer feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and radical philosopher William Godwin, lover and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, author of Frankenstein and creator of the science fiction genre, Mary Shelley has remained a figure both undervalued and enigmatic. In this authoritative, ground-breaking biography, she is finally restored to her rightful stature as one of the major figures in English literary history.

Here for the first time is a full account of Mary...

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Winner of the Prize for Independent Scholars from the Modern Language Association

Notable Book of the Year from The New York Times

Daughter of pioneer feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and radical philosopher William Godwin, lover and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, author of Frankenstein and creator of the science fiction genre, Mary Shelley has remained a figure both undervalued and enigmatic. In this authoritative, ground-breaking biography, she is finally restored to her rightful stature as one of the major figures in English literary history.

Here for the first time is a full account of Mary Shelley's career, significant areas of which have never before been examined: her precocious childhood, her adolescent liaison with the radical poet Shelley, her creation of Frankenstein at the age of nineteen, her tempestuous but brilliant married years with Shelley, and, of particular note, the dramatic second half of her life, after Shelley's death. Emily Sunstein has also discovered previously unknown works written by Mary Shelley and traces the development of her unjustly clouded posthumous reputation.

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Promises to be the definitive biography of Mary Shelley... Sunstein is to be praised for looking anew at so misunderstood a life.

— New York Times

Beyond question Shelley scholars and 19th-century specialists will value this usefully annotated and carefully produced edition; it may also be that anyone would enjoy the stories themselves... and the accompanying original engravings.

— Diane Johnson, Washington Post

Sunstein is to be praised for looking anew at so misunderstood a life.

— New York Times
About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6.125
x
9.25
Pages
512
ISBN
9780801842184
DOI
Illustration Description
33 b&w photos
Subject
Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: The Aspiring Child
Chapter 1. "My Brilliant Star"
Chapter 2. "To Be Something Great And Good"
Chapter 3. "The Time of My Girlish Troubles"
Chapter

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List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: The Aspiring Child
Chapter 1. "My Brilliant Star"
Chapter 2. "To Be Something Great And Good"
Chapter 3. "The Time of My Girlish Troubles"
Chapter 4. "My Choice!"
Part II: Romance
Chapter 5. "France – Poverty – A Few Days of Solitude & Some Uneasiness"
Chapter 6. "A Tranquil Residence in A Beautiful Spot"
Chapter 7. "Switzerland – Bath"
Chapter 8. "Marlow"
Chapter 9. "Milan – The Baths of Lucca – Este – Venice – Rome – Naples – Rome & Misery"
Chapter 10. "Leghorn – Florence Pisa –"
Chapter 11. "Solitude The Williams – The Baths"
Chapter 12. "Pisa" – The Last Chapter With Shelley
Part III: Heroism
Chapter 13. "Magnificent, Deep, Pathetic, Wild and Exalted"
Chapter 14. "The Regions of the Has Been, Is, & To Be"
Chapter 15. "The Union of Kentish Town"
Chapter 16. "Ingratitude, Caprice, and Change"
Part IV: The World
Chapter 17. "A New Kind of Life"
Chapter 18. "The Great Disappointment of my Life"
Chapter 19. "Do Not Awaken the Deep Waters"
Chapter 20. "Amore Redivivus"
Chapter 21. "I Will Sit Admidst the Ruins and Smile"
Chapter 22. Romance and Reality
Appendix A "Stanazas"
Appendix B Mary Shelley's Works
Chapter Notes
Index

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