Book description
Mary Shelley's own life was as dramatic as her fiction. Even had
she not (at the age of 19) authored Frankenstein, one of the greatest
horror fables in literature, she would be crucial to the study of
Romanticism, as the daughter of two of the great radical thinkers of
the day, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft (who died following
Mary's birth); and as the second Mrs Percy Bysshe Shelley, her
companion for that stormy stay at Byron's Geneva villa in 1816 - the
'haunted summer' that begat Frankenstein. Drawing on unexplored
sources, Miranda Seymour's hugely acclaimed biography penetrates the
myth to offer the fullest, richest portrait of this extraordinary
woman. 'Mary Shelley is the most dazzling biography of a female writer
to have come my way for an entire decade.' Financial Times 'Brilliant
and enthralling, this portrait illuminates Mary's life in many
unexpected ways.' Independent on Sunday 'Miranda Seymour has vivid
narrative gifts and a perceptive understanding of the main
personalities.' New York Times Book Review 'A thoughtfully considered
and exceptionally lifelike portrait of a complex and often
misunderstood character.' Los Angeles Times 'A harrowing life,
wonderfully retold.' Washington Post Book World 'A splendid
biography.' New Yorker
Miranda Seymour, celebrated both as a novelist and a biographer, has
been a visiting professor at Nottingham Trent University, is a Fellow of
the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Arts. She is the author of five acclaimed biographies: A Ring Of
Conspirators, an innovative study of Henry James and his literary
circle; Ottoline Morrell: Life On A Grand Scale; Robert Graves: Life On
The Edge; Mary Shelley; and The Bugatti Queen. Her most recent book is a
memoir of her father, In My Father's House, published in the UK in 2007.
Miranda is also the author of several successful historical novels,
including, most recently, The Telling.
