1. The Life of Mary Shelley

2. Early Life Born Aug. 30, 1797 in London Her parents, a political philosopher and a feminist, married when her mother was five months pregnant. Her mother died ten days after giving birth to her. She felt alone and unhappy because her stepmom often neglected her. She would go to her mother’s grave to read and write, and eventually met her lover there.

3. Early Life Growing up, Mary learned how to write from her father and house visitors such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a Romantic poet and philosopher. She often read her mother’s writings, along with a great number of other books. Her father often took her to lectures, theatre performances, and other events in London.

4. When Mary met Percy at the graveyard, he was married and fathered two children. The attraction was so intense that both Percy and Mary felt they needed to be together; they eloped 1816. Mary got pregnant three times, but the babies died in early infancy. Eventually, one son survived. He was named Percy Florence. Life as a Young Woman

5. Percy’s former wife and Mary’s half-sister both committed suicide. Percy also became romantically involved with other women. Despite the hardships, the couple continued to vigorously study literature, language, music, art, and more. The Shelleys were living in Lenci, Italy, when Percy drowned while sailing through a storm. Mary and her son returned to London, England. Hardship

6. Later in Life She struggled financially and emotionally after Percy Sr.’s death. She wrote books, but they were published anonymously. Sir Timothy Shelley requested that the Shelley name not be printed. She wrote not only novels, but also biographical and critical sketches.

7. Timothy Shelley Timothy Shelley was Percy’s father and a member of Parliament. He was in control of Mary, and also Percy Jr. He decided their income and future.

8. Later in Life She became very ill while writing her most cherished work, a biography of her husband Percy. Before completing the biography, she died at age 54. Died: February 1, 1851 in Bournemouth, United Kingdom

9. Shelley’s Work History of a Six Weeks' Tour – a record of her trip through the Alps Frankenstein- composed for a ghost story competition; it incorporates many details from her personal life.

10. Shelley’s Work Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley- Mary published the poems of her husband, but had to withdraw them shortly after because Timothy Shelley requested she do so.

11. Shelley’s Work The Last Man- describes her experience with the intellectual company of Shelley and Byron

12. Work Cited "Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1797-1851)." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 6 Dec. 2010. Bloom, Harold, ed. "Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft." Frankenstein, Bloom's Guide. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts on File, Inc. " Sir Timothy Shelley." University of Pennsylavania Website. UPENN, n.d. Web. 3 Dec 2010. <http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/People/tsh elley.html