The Life & Legacy of Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was a 19th century novelist whose most famous work is still an important part of the 21st century pop culture lexicon. Frankenstein, a book about assembling a new creature using science beyond real capabilities, gave birth to the science fiction genre.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on August 30, 1797, in London; she was the daughter of political and philosophy writer William Godwin and feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft. She started writing during her childhood, publishing her first poem, “Mounseer Nongtongpaw” in 1807.

She met future husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, in 1814, and the pair left her home to travel around Europe. A year later, after the death of their first child, the Shelleys went to Switzerland with Lord Byron, Jane Clairmont, and John Polidori. During one rainy day, the group spent time reading ghost stories until Byron suggested that they write their own horror stories.

It was then that she started writing Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, the story of a doctor whose ambition supersedes ethics when he uses the body parts of dead men to assemble and bring to life a new one. While writing that book, she also penned History of a Six Weeks’ Tour, a travelogue about their adventures in Europe. Frankenstein was published in 1818, though it was originally released without crediting Shelley.

Her life was marked by tragedies, with her half-sister’s suicide, the deaths of two more children, and Percy’s own accidental death while sailing. A widow at 24, Shelley supported her only surviving child, Percy Florence, by writing several more novels. They included Valperga, an historical novel set in the 14th century, and The Last Man, a dystopian sci-fi novel about the bubonic plague nearly wiping out humanity in the late 21st century. She also spent time promoting her late husband’s poetry, then she died from brain cancer in 1851.

Frankenstein has been adapted dozens of times on film, starting with the 1910 silent film, featuring Augustus Phillips. The best known Frankenstein adaptation came in 1931, starring Boris Karloff as the Monster. The Universal hit was followed by multiple sequels, including The Bride of Frankenstein. Hammer Films released several Frankenstein movies in the ‘60s and ‘70s, featuring Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein. The most faithful adaptation to the book came in ’94 with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, starring Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro, and Helena Bonham Carter.