English writer of novels, short stories, essays, biographies and travel writing. Best known for her gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. She is considered one of the pioneers of science fiction fiction.
Mary Shelley was born into a prominent family. Her father, William Godwin, was a prominent anarchist, philosopher, writer and journalist, and her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a writer, feminist and philosopher. Her mother died of sepsis just 10 days after Mary was born. Her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was one of the great English poets of the 19th century, whose work she edited and published. Her love affair with Percy had a turbulent start: at the age of 16, she had fled to France with the poet, who had left his first wife after an unhappy love affair. After that, Godwin never wanted to see them again. Mary married the poet when his wife committed suicide. When her husband drowned in 1822, the writer returned to England. Her fake sisters, Fanny Imlay, who scandalously committed suicide, and Claire Clairmont, who had a daughter by the famous poet Lord Byron, were also famous.
Mrs Shelley's seminal novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, was an incredible success, and the beginning of the fantasy genre, when she was only nineteen. A couple of years later, in 1818, it was first published anonymously in London. Shelley's name did not appear until the third edition in 1831. He learns to create a bigger and more powerful man. This superman was called "The Creature". A living monster created from corpse parts destroys its creator. The novel was an immediate success and has remained popular ever since. It has been the basis for many plays and films. The creation of the legendary "The Creature" was prompted by a nightmare she said: "My imagination spontaneously possessed me and took me beyond the boundaries of normal thought... I saw a pale, devilish art student and a hideous phantom, which, with the help of some device, began to show signs of life, then to move, but without seeming half alive." Shelley had this dream during a visit to a family friend, the poet Lord Byron, at Lake Geneva. The reading of the German anthology of horror tales "Das Gespensterbuch" ("The Book of Ghosts") made an unforgettable impression.
At the age of 26, Shelley published her second novel "Valperga". She has also written poetry, short stories, biographies and travel writing. In A History of a Six-Week Journey (1817), she vividly recounts her and Percy's wanderings through Europe after their escape from home. Set in the future, The Last Man is about the fall of mankind.
