Mary Shelley Books In Order

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Frankenstein (1818)
  2. The Last Man (1826)
  3. Proserpine and Midas (1922)
  4. Maurice, or The Fisher’s Cot (1998)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. The Mortal Immortal (1831)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. The Gentlewomen of Evil: An Anthology of Rare Supernatural Stories from the Pens of Victorian Ladies (1967)
  2. Witches’ Brew (1984)

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Mary Shelley Books Overview

Frankenstein

Purchase one of 1st World Library’s Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. 1st World Library Literary Society is a non profit educational organization. Visit us online at www. 1stWorldLibrary. ORG You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I arrived here yesterday, and my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare and increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking. I am already far north of London, and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh, I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves and fills me with delight. Do you understand this feeling? This breeze, which has travelled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my daydreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is forever visible, its broad disk just skirting the horizon and diffusing a perpetual splendour. There for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators there snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Its productions and features may be without example, as the phenomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle and may regulate a thousand celestial observations that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent forever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death and to induce me to commence this labourious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. But supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind, to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.

The Last Man

The Last Man is an apocalyptic science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826. The book tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. The novel was harshly reviewed at the time, and was virtually unknown until a scholarly revival beginning in the 1960s. It is notable in part for its semi biographical portraits of Romantic figures in Shelley’s circle, particularly Shelley’s late husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; 30 August 1797 1 February 1851 was a 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. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Until the 1970s, Mary Shelley was known mainly for her efforts to publish Percy Shelley’s works and for her novel Frankenstein, which remains widely read and has inspired many theatrical and film adaptations. Recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of Mary Shelley’s achievements. 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 the Enlightenment political theories articulated by her father, William Godwin. Wikipedia

Proserpine and Midas

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley n e Godwin 1797 1851 was an English romantic gothic novelist. She received an excellent education, which was unusual for girls at the time. She never went to school, but she was taught to read and write by Louisa Jones, and then educated in a broad range of subjects by her father, who gave her free access to his extensive library. In particular, she was encouraged to write stories, and one of these early works Mounseer Nongtongpaw was published by the Godwin Company’s Juvenile Library when she was only eleven. One night, perhaps attributable to Galvani’s report, Mary had a waking dream; she recounted the episode in this way: ‘What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow. ‘ This nightmare served as the basis for the novel that she entitled Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus 1818. Amongst her other works are: The Last Man 1826, Proserpine and Midas 1922 and Notes to the Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Maurice, or The Fisher’s Cot

In the fall of 1997, in a palazzo in the Tuscan hills north of Florence, a small booklet sewn into paper covers turned up in a long unopened crate of old letters and other documents. It bore the title ‘Maurice’ and an inscription: ‘For Laurette from her friend Mrs Shelley.’ Investigation proved it to be a story written by Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, a story presumed by scholars to have been irretrievably lost soon after its composition in 1820. It is here published for the first time. Written two years after her great gothic novel, Maurice dates from a period when Mary Shelley, still only twenty two, was deeply sunk in depression. She had eloped with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley at sixteen, borne him four children and seen three of them die. Thus, though Maurice is basically a charming moral tale written for a child the daughter of a close friend it betrays a vein of melancholy, beginning with a funeral and concerning a boy who has lost his parents. Even the happy ending has a sad twist. Claire Tomalin the distinguished biographer of, among others, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft was personally involved in the authentication of the rediscovered manuscript. She here contributes a comprehensive and fascinating introduction that explores the literary and psychological importance of the story and investigates the hitherto obscure histories of the two extraordinary families whose lives it touched.

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