This is a bibliography of works by Mary Shelley (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851), the British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Until the 1970s, Mary Shelley was known mainly for her efforts to publish Percy Shelley's works and for Frankenstein. Recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of Mary Shelley’s achievements, however. Scholars have shown increasing interest in her literary output, particularly in her novels, which include the historical novels Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the apocalyptic novel The Last Man (1826), and her final two novels, Lodore (1835) and Falkner (1837). Studies of her lesser-known works such as the travel book Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–46) support the growing view that Mary Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Mary Shelley's works often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by Percy Shelley and Enlightenment political theories.
Collections of Mary Shelley's papers are housed in The Abinger Collection and The Bodleian Shelley Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, the New York Public Library (particularly The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle), the Huntington Library, the British Library, and in the John Murray Collection.
The following list is based on W. H. Lyles's Mary Shelley: An Annotated Bibliography and Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings. It lists first editions of works authored by Mary Shelley, except where indicated.
Title | First publication | Notes | Online text |
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Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus | 3 vols. London: Printed for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, 1818 (MS 1816-revised until 1831) | There are six important versions of Frankenstein, two manuscript and four printed: "Shelley's manuscript; the fair copy manuscript, the 1818 first edition, the 1821 second overall edition published in Paris translated into French by Jules Saladin with strong emphasis on black magic and the supernatural to which the book was the first to attribute Mary Shelley as the author of Frankenstein and the only such edition to do so during the lifetime of Percy Shelley who was said to be extremely proud of the 1821 edition. The first edition of 1818 and second overall edition of 1821 were the only editions of Frankenstein to be published as a three volume set with the 1821 edition being the rarest of all printed editions. The annotated Thomas copy, and the 1831 edition." [1] William Godwin edited a version for the press in 1823, but he had no help from Mary Shelley and thus the edition is usually disregarded. Mary Shelley revised the 1818 text in 1831, creating a substantially new text. The editors of the Broadview Press edition of the novel write that "the 1818 and 1831 editions of Frankenstein are best treated as two separate texts". [1] Anne K. Mellor argues that after her personal tragedies, Shelley altered the text to suggest that humans could not control their own destinies and Maurice Hindle notes that the "1831 version strips the novel of much of its context, removing a number of references to contemporary science...and Godwinian philosophy." [1] | Frankenstein |
Valperga: Or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca | 3 vols. London: Printed for G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823 | Valperga | |
The Last Man | 3 vols. London: Henry Colburn, 1826 | Google Books (Vol. 2 of 1826 Paris ed.) | |
The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance | 3 vols. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830 | Google Books (1857) | |
Lodore | 3 vols. London: Richard Bentley, 1835 | Google Books | |
Falkner. A Novel | 3 vols. London: Saunders and Otley, 1837 | Gutenberg | |
Mathilda | Ed. Elizabeth Nitchie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959. | Manuscript: MS. Abinger d. 33 | Gutenberg |
Title | Authors | First publication | Manuscript | Notes | Online text |
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History of a Six Weeks' Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland: with Letters Descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni | Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley | London: T. Hookham, Jun.; and C. and J. Ollier, 1817; revised and published as "Journal of a Six Weeks' Tour" and "Letters from Geneva" in Essays from Abroad, Translations and Fragments, by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited by Mrs. Shelley (London: Edward Moxon, 1840); revised and published as a single volume in 1845 (London: Edward Moxon) [2] | Two draft leaves in Mary Shelley's hand survive and are in the Abinger collection at the Bodleian library: MS. Abinger c. 63. [3] | The Tour is Mary Shelley's first published work; it includes the first publication of Percy Shelley's poem "Mont Blanc". [4] | History of a Six Weeks' Tour |
Rambles in Germany and Italy, in 1840, 1842, and 1843 | Mary Shelley | 2 vols. London: Edward Moxon, 1844 | Rambles is Shelley's last published work. | Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840 |
Title | Authors | First publication | Composition date | Manuscript | Notes | Online text |
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Proserpine | Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley | The Winter's Wreath for 1832. London: Wittaker, Treacher, and Arnot, n[o].d[ate]. [9] | Finished by 3 April 1820 [10] | Fragment of the manuscript is in Pforzheimer Collection at the New York Public Library [11] | Percy Shelley contributed two lyric poems: "Arethusa" and "Song of Proserpine While Gathering Flowers on the Plain of Enna". [11] The published version of the play was cut by about one-fifth from the manuscript version. [12] | Gutenberg |
Midas | Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley | Proserpine & Midas. Two unpublished Mythological Dramas by Mary Shelley. Ed. A. H. Koszul. London: Humphrey Milford, 1922. [13] | 1820 [13] | Percy Shelley contributed two lyric poems. | Gutenberg | |
Maurice; or, The Fisher's Cot | Mary Shelley | Ed. Claire Tomalin. London: Viking, 1998. | 10 August 1820 [14] | This manuscript was discovered by Cristina Dazzi in Italy in 1997. [15] |
Title | Authors | First publication | Notes | Online text |
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Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol. I | Mary Shelley and James Montgomery | Vol. 86 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1835. | Authorship is uncertain regarding some of the biographies in the volume. According to Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings, Mary Shelley wrote the following lives: Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo de'Medici, Marsiglio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Angelo Poliziano, Bernardo Pulci, Luca Pulci, Luigi Pulci, Cieco Da Ferrara, Burchiello, Bojardo, Berni, Machiavelli. [23] | Internet Archive |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol. II | Mary Shelley, James Montgomery, and Sir David Brewster | Vol. 87 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1835. | Authorship is uncertain regarding some of the biographies in the volume. According to Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings, Mary Shelley wrote the following lives: Guicciardini, Vittoria Colonna, Guarini, Chiabrera, Tassoni, Marini, Filicaja, Metastasio, Goldoni, Alfieri, Monti, Ugo Foscolo. [24] | Internet Archive |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol. III | Mary Shelley [and others] | Vol. 88 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1837. | According to Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings, Mary Shelley wrote the biographies of: Boscan, Garcilaso de la Vega, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Luis de Leon, Herrera, Saa de Miranda, Jorge de Montemayor, Castillejo, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Vicente Espinel, Estaban de Villegas, Góngora, Quevedo, Calderón, Ribeyro, Gil Vicente, Ferreira, Camoens. [25] | Internet Archive |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, Vol. I | Mary Shelley [and others] | Vol. 102 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1838. | According to Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings, Mary Shelley wrote the following biographies: Montaigne, Corneille, Rouchefoucauld, [26] Molière, Pascal, Madame de Sévigné, Boileau, Racine, Fénélon. [27] | Internet Archive |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, Vol. II | Mary Shelley | Vol. 103 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1839. | This volume contains the following biographies: Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, Mirabeau, Madame Roland, Madame de Stael. [28] | Internet Archive |
Life of William Godwin | Mary Shelley | Unfinished and unpublished; Edited from the manuscripts in the Abinger Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford by Pamela Clemit in 'Literary Lives,' Vol. 4, 3-113. |
Poem | First publication | Manuscript | Attribution | Composition date |
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"Absence; 'Ah! he is gone—and I alone!—'" | The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and Jennings and Chaplin, 1830. | British Library, Ashley MS A 4023, fair copy in MS's handwriting [29] | ||
"A Dirge; 'This morn, thy gallant bark, love'" | The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and Jennings and Chaplin, 1830. | Earliest extant manuscript at Harvard University fMS. Eng. 822, dated November 1827; second manuscript in a letter MS wrote to Maria Gisborne on 11 June 1835 [30] | November 1827 and 11 June 1835 | |
"A Night Scene; 'I see thee not, my gentlest Isabel'" | The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and Jennings and Chaplin, 1830. | Published anonymously in the Keepsake, first attributed by Nitchie and confirmed by Palacio through a sales catalogue listing an autograph poem called "A Night Scene" [31] | ||
"Song; 'When I'm no more, this harp that rings'" | The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and Jennings and Chaplin, 1830. | This poem is included in Lyles's bibliography but not in the more recent Markley edition of MS's works. | ||
"The Death of Love" | Bennett, Betty T. "Newly Uncovered Letters and Poems by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley". Keats-Shelley Journal 46 (1997): 51–74. | The only surviving manuscript, dated 19 November 1831, is found in an autograph album owned by Birkbeck, University of London and entitled "Mrs. G. Birkbeck / ALBUM / September, MDCCCXXV". [31] | This poem is listed in Markley but not in Lyles. | 19 November 1831 |
"To Love in Solitude and Mystery" | The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIII. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1832. | Pforzheimer Collection, New York Public Library | Published anonymously. Attribution was first suggested by Emily W. Sunstein and confirmed in Bennett, Betty T. "Newly Uncovered Letters and Poems by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley". Keats-Shelley Journal 46 (1997): 51–74. [32] This poem is included in Markley's edition of MS's works but not in Lyles's bibliography. | |
"I Must Forget Thy Dark Eyes' Love-Fraught Gaze" | The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIII. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1832. | Berg Collection, New York Public Library | Published anonymously. Attributed by Emily Sunstein. [32] This poem is included in Markley's edition of MS's works but not in Lyles's bibliography. | |
"Ode to Ignorance; 'Hail, Ignorance! majestic queen!'" | The Metropolitan Magazine 9 (1834): 29–31. | This poem is included in Lyles's bibliography but not in the more recent Markley edition of MS's works. | ||
"Fame" | The Drawing-Room Scrap-Book. 1835. 1834. | This poem is included in Lyles's bibliography but not in the more recent Markley edition of MS's works. | ||
"How like a star you rose upon my life" | The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX. Ed. Frederick Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans/Paris: Delloy and Co., 1838. | |||
"To the Death; 'O, Come to me in dreams, my love'" | The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1839. | Collection of Samuel Loveman | 15 December 1834 | |
"Oh Listen While I sing to Thee," Canzonet, With Accompaniment for the Harp or Piano Forte, Composed and Inscribed to his Friend Berry King, Esqr. by Henry Hugh Pearson, Professor of Music in the University of Edinburgh | London: D'Almaine and Co. [c.1842] [33] | Bodleian Library and British Library | 12 March 1838 | |
The Choice. a Poem on Shelley's Death by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley | Ed. Harry Buxton Forman. London: Printed for the Editor for Private Distribution, 1876. | Two versions of the poem exist: One is the Forman edition, drawn from a manuscript sent to Forman, and the other is in MS's journal (Ab. Dep. 311/4, pp. 100–06). [34] | May – July 1823 | |
"On Reading Wordsworth's Lines on Peel [ sic ] Castle; 'It is with me, as erst with you" | Grylls, Rosalie Glynn. Mary Shelley: A Biography. London: Oxford University Press, 1938. | Two manuscripts survive, both dated 8 December 1825: Ab. Dep. c. 516 and Ab. Dep. d. 311/4. The second manuscript version was published in Grylls. [29] | 8 December 1825 | |
"Fragment; (To Jane with the Last [Man]) 'Tribute for thee, dear solace of my life'" | Grylls, Rosalie Glynn. Mary Shelley: A Biography. London: Oxford University Press, 1938. | Ab. Dep. d. 311/4, p. 109 | c. 23 January 1826 | |
"Tempo e' piu di Morire/Io ho tardato piu ch' i' non vorrei: 'Sadly borne across the waves'" | Ed. Elizabeth Nitchie. Mary Shelley: Author of Frankenstein. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953. | Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, f. 101 | 1833 | |
"La Vida es sueño; 'The tide of Time was at my feet'" | 1833 version published by Jean de Palacio in 1969; 1834 version published in Ed. Elizabeth Nitchie. Mary Shelley: Author of Frankenstein. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953. | Personal collection of Jean de Palacio and Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, f. 101 | 26 July 1833 and 1834 | |
"Fair Italy! Still Shines Thy Sun as Bright" | Bennett, Betty T. "Newly Uncovered Letters and Poems by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley". Keats-Shelley Journal 46 (1997): 51–74. | Fales Manuscript Collection, Fales Library, New York University | This poem is included in Markley's edition of MS's works but not in Lyles's bibliography. | 10 September 1833 |
Title | Composition date | Manuscript | Summary | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
"History of the Jews" | c. 1812–16 | Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 22-37 | This fragment is written in MS's handwriting and "draws on particularly passages in the Old Testament books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua and Judges and follows a common 'Jacobin' mode in which the veracity of the Old Testament is disproved by foregrounding absurdities and inconsistencies in the narrative, the ultimate aim being to undermine the tenets of Christianity by taking apart the credibility of its foundation in the Hebrew scriptures". [35] Jane Blumberg has attributed it to MS (but with a strong influence from PBS). Others believe it to be a translation of an unknown French anti-clerical work. It could also be a dictated work. [35] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Theseus" | 1815? | Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 20-1 | This fragment describes Theseus, drawing on Plutarch's Parallel Lives . [36] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Cyrus" | 1815? | Ab. Dep. c. 477/1, f.63 and Ab. Dep. c. 534/1, f. 95 | This fragment is a brief life of Cyrus the Great of Persia and a summary of the achievements of ancient Chaldea, India, and Egypt. [37] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Address to the Duchess of Angoulême" | c. 1815–16 | Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, f. 92-93 | This is a fragment written in MS's handwriting of an "imaginary address from a dead speaker in the manner of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead". [38] The addressee is Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Duchess d'Angoulême, the only surviving child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the leader of an Ultra-Royalist party following Napoleon's defeat. The speaker in Mary I of England. MS may have written this work herself, may have taken this work in dictation from PBS, or the two may have authored it together. [39] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Correspondence of Louis XVI" | 1816 | Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 1-19 | This fragment is a partial translation of Correspondance politique et confidentielle inédite de Louis XIV, Avec ses frères, et plusieurs personnes célèbres, pendant les dernières années de son règne, et jusqu'à sa mort, avec des observations par Hélene-Maria Williams. 2 vols. Paris: Debray, 1803. [40] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Cupid and Psyche" | November 1817 | Library of Congress MSS 13,290, pp. 35–65 and Bodleian MS Shelley adds. e. 2 | This fragment is a partial translation of the tale of "Cupid and Psyche" from Apuleius's Golden Ass . [41] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Samuel" | 1819-20 | Ab. Dep. e. 274, pp. 3–24 | This fragment is an abridgement of the first fifteen chapters of the 1 Samuel. It may be modelled on William Godwin's children's book Bible Stories (1802). [42] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"The Necessity of a Belief in the Heathen Mythology to a Christian" | 1820 | Ab. Dep. e. 274, pp. 102 rev.-97 rev., 92 rev. | This fragment is a "gathering of notes (with touches of dry wit) towards an argumentative essay". [43] According to Markley, "its purpose appears strategic: to undermine the claims of Judaeo-Christian scriptures in order to assert the beauty and superior morality of classical myth". [44] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Cry of War to the Greeks" | 2–5 April 1821 | Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, ff. 91, 34 | This fragment is an unfinished rough draft translation of the Greek patriot and war-leader's Alexander Ypsilanti's call to arms. The finished copy was sent to London to accompany pro-Greek newspaper articles, but has disappeared. The translation is a collaborative effort between MS and PBS. [45] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Life of Shelley" | 10 February 1823, 2 March 1823, and 25 March 1823 | Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5 ff. 113-118 | This fragment "presents a vivid portrait of Mary Shelley in the early stages of her widowhood...The fragments include an assessment of [Percy Bysshe Shelley's] personality and character and some anecdotes of his boyhood found nowhere else." [46] | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"God of the Best the Brightest" | 30 December 1824 and 6 January 1825 | Pierpont Morgan Library, MA 406 | This poetic fragment may be a quotation from another writer. [47] It has now been identified as a quotation from "I Cannot Love this England" in Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain, trans. John Bowring (1824); p. 16 | |
"Alas I weep my life away" | 14 August 1831 | Journal V, Ab. Dep. d. 311/5 | This poetic fragment, thought to be possibly a quotation from another writer . [47] | |
"Struggle no more, my Soul with the sad chains" | 16 August 1831 | Journal V, Ab. Dep. d. 311/5 | This poetic fragment may be a quotation from another writer or it may be by MS. [47] | |
"Cecil" | 1844 | Ab. Dep. 3. 229, pp. 1–32 | "Cecil" is a partial translation of Ida Hahn-Hahn's German novel of that name. | Among the last known writing projects undertaken by Mary Shelley. [48] This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Inez de Medina" | 1848-50 | Ab. Dep. c. 767/3, pp. 129–46, 147-164 | This fragment is a partial translation of the novel Inez de Medina by Laura Galloni. [49] | This is the last known work-in-progress by Mary Shelley. [50] This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
Thomas Jefferson Hogg was a British barrister and writer best known for his friendship with the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Hogg was raised in County Durham, but spent most of his life in London. He and Shelley became friends while studying at University College, Oxford, and remained close until Shelley's death. During their time at Oxford they collaborated on several literary projects, culminating in their joint expulsion following the publication of an essay titled "The Necessity of Atheism". They remained good friends, but their relationship was sometimes strained because of Hogg's attraction to the women who were romantically involved with Shelley.
"To a Skylark" is a poem completed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in late June 1820 and published accompanying his lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound by Charles and James Ollier in London.
William Miller was a Scottish Quaker line engraver and watercolourist from Edinburgh.
Zastrozzi: A Romance is a Gothic novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley first published in 1810 in London by George Wilkie and John Robinson anonymously, with only the initials of the author's name, as "by P.B.S.". The first of Shelley's two early Gothic novellas, the other being St. Irvyne, outlines his atheistic worldview through the villain Zastrozzi and touches upon his earliest thoughts on irresponsible self-indulgence and violent revenge. An 1810 reviewer wrote that the main character "Zastrozzi is one of the most savage and improbable demons that ever issued from a diseased brain".
Proserpine is a verse drama written for children by the English Romantic writers Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary wrote the blank verse drama and Percy contributed two lyric poems. Composed in 1820 while the Shelleys were living in Italy, it is often considered a partner to the Shelleys' play Midas. Proserpine was first published in the London periodical The Winter's Wreath in 1832. Whether the drama was ever intended to be staged is a point of debate among scholars.
The Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men comprised ten volumes of Dionysius Lardner's 133-volume Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–1846). Aimed at the self-educating middle class, this encyclopedia was written during the 19th-century literary revolution in Britain that encouraged more people to read.
"Maurice, or the Fisher's Cot" is a children's story by the Romantic writer Mary Shelley. Written in 1820 for Laurette Tighe, a daughter of her friends Margaret King and George William Tighe, Mary Shelley tried to have it published by her father, William Godwin, but he refused. The text was lost until 1997, when a manuscript copy was discovered in Italy.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English writer who is considered as one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."
St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance is a Gothic horror novel written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1810 and published by John Joseph Stockdale in December of that year, dated 1811, in London anonymously as "by a Gentleman of the University of Oxford" while the author was an undergraduate. The main character is Wolfstein, a solitary wanderer, who encounters Ginotti, an alchemist of the Rosicrucian or Rose Cross Order who seeks to impart the secret of immortality. The book was reprinted in 1822 by Stockdale and in 1840 in The Romancist and the Novelist's Library: The Best Works of the Best Authors, Vol. III, edited by William Hazlitt. The novella was a follow-up to Shelley's first prose work, Zastrozzi, published earlier in 1810. St. Irvyne was republished in 1986 by Oxford University Press as part of the World's Classics series along with Zastrozzi and in 2002 by Broadview Press.
The Keepsake was an English literary annual which ran from 1828 to 1857, published each Christmas from 1827 to 1856, for perusal during the year of the title. Like other literary annuals, The Keepsake was an anthology of short fiction, poetry, essays, and engraved illustrations. It was a gift book designed to appeal to young women, and was distinctive for its binding of scarlet dress silk and the quality of its illustrations. Although the literature in The Keepsake and other annuals is often regarded as second-rate, many of the contributors to The Keepsake are canonical authors of the Romantic period.
"The Mortal Immortal" is a short story from 1833 written by Mary Shelley. It tells the story of a man named Winzy, who drinks an elixir which makes him immortal. At first, immortality appears to promise him eternal tranquility. However, it soon becomes apparent that he is cursed to endure eternal psychological torture, as everything he loves dies around him.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft.
Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire was a poetry collection written by Percy Bysshe Shelley and his sister Elizabeth which was printed by Charles and William Phillips in Worthing and published by John Joseph Stockdale in September 1810. The work was Shelley's first published volume of poetry. Shelley wrote the poems in collaboration with his sister Elizabeth. The poems were written before Shelley entered the University of Oxford.
The Triumph of Life was the last major work by Percy Bysshe Shelley before his death in 1822. The work was left unfinished. Shelley wrote the poem at Casa Magni in Lerici, Italy in the early summer of 1822. He modelled the poem, written in terza rima, on Petrarch's Trionfi and Dante's Divine Comedy.
"The Evil Eye" is a piece of short fiction written by Mary Shelley and published in The Keepsake for 1830. The tale is set in Greece and is about a man known as Dmitri of the Evil Eye. Dmitri's wife was murdered and his daughter abducted many years before the story begins. Dmitri's friend Katusthius Ziani enlists him to help recover his rightful inheritance, and during their journey they abduct a boy whom Dmitri discovers to be his grandson.
"The Dream" is a Gothic tale written by Mary Shelley and first published in The Keepsake for 1832. Set in France around the turn of the seventeenth century, it is the story of a young woman named Constance who is in love with Gaspar, the son of her father's enemy. Because their fathers killed each other in battle, Constance feels she cannot marry Gaspar, even though he loves her too. She spends a night on St. Catherine's Couch, a ledge of rock overlooking a river, in the hope that St. Catherine will offer her guidance in her dreams. She does, and Constance and Gaspar are married the next day.
The Invisible Girl is a Gothic tale written by Mary Shelley and first published in The Keepsake for 1833. The tale is set in Wales, and tells the story of a young woman named Rosina, who lives with her guardian, Sir Peter Vernon, and is secretly engaged to his son, Henry. Henry is away from home when their relationship is discovered, and Sir Peter casts Rosina out of the house. Sir Peter regrets his harshness and searches for her, but assumes she is dead when she cannot be found. Henry returns home to the news of Rosina's death and is heartbroken. He joins the search for her body, and the villagers tell him about the Invisible Girl, a ghostly figure who wanders the woods at night. Henry finds Rosina hiding in a remote ruin and discovers that she is really the Invisible Girl. Sir Peter forgives them for their secret engagement, and they are married.
Ferdinando Eboli is a Gothic tale written by Mary Shelley and published in The Keepsake for 1829. It is set in Italy during the Napoleonic Wars and tells the story of an Italian man named Count Ferdinando Eboli whose identity is stolen by his illegitimate older brother.
"On Frankenstein" is a review of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The review is written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817 but was not published until 1832.