Mary Shelley
(1797-1851), NovelistMary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Regency Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter associated with 3 portraits
The novelist Mary Shelley was deeply influenced by the writings of her parents Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. When only sixteen, she eloped to the Continent with Percy Bysshe Shelley and married him two years later. In 1816, when they were neighbours of Byron, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Mary began Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus (1818) the tale of an idealistic student who discovers the secret of imparting life to inanimate matter. Contrasting scientific discovery with moral responsibility, Frankenstein, for the first time, seriously questioned the human impact of scientific research.
Unknown woman, formerly known as Mary Shelley
by Samuel John Stump
oil on canvas, 1831
NPG 1719
Mary Shelley; Percy Bysshe Shelley
by George J. Stodart, after a monument by Henry Weekes
stipple engraving, (1853)
NPG D5956
Related People
- William Godwin (father)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley (husband)
- Sir Percy Florence Shelley, 3rd Bt (son)
- Mary Wollstonecraft (mother)
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