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Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who is best known for writing 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. Mary's mother died 11 days after giving birth to her. She was raised by her father, who provided her with a rich if informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his own anarchist political theories. When she was four, her father married a neighbour, Mary Jane Clairmont, with whom Mary came to have a troubled relationship. In 1814, Mary began a romance with one of her father's political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Together with her stepsister, Clai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Rothwell (painter)
Richard Rothwell (20 November 1800 – 13 September 1868) was a nineteenth-century Irish portrait painter, portrait and genre painter. Biography Richard Rothwell was born 20 November 1800 in Dublin. His father has generally been stated to be James Rothwell of Lisdaly, near Cloghen, King's Co. (Offaly), though primary source evidence suggests that he was the son of William Rothwell, gentleman, who appears in the 1820s as a publican of Ferbane, King’s Co., acquiring land at Ballicknahee, King’s Co. His mother was Elizabeth Rothwell (née Holmes). He had at least three siblings (a brother and two sisters) and possibly as many as six [3]. He trained to become a painter at the Dublin Society, Dublin Society's school from 1814 until 1820 and won a silver medal for his work. At the age of 24, he was made a member of the newly established Royal Hibernian Academy and exhibited portraits there from 1826 to 1829. He subsequently moved to London and worked as a studio assistant to Thoma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Jane Clairmont
Mary Jane Godwin (née de Vial; best known as Clairmont; 1768–1841) was an English author, publisher, and bookseller. She was the second wife of William Godwin and stepmother to Mary Shelley. Early life Mary Jane de Vial was born in Exeter in 1768, probably the daughter of merchant Peter de Vial and his wife Mary (née Tremlett). Little is known about her early life, but she spoke several European languages and claimed to have travelled extensively on the Continent. In 1795 she was living in Bristol, a busy port city in south west England. There she bore her first child, Charles. Three years later at Brislington, a nearby village, she gave birth to a daughter she named Clara (in childhood known as Jane and in adulthood as Claire). To avoid these children bearing the social stigma of illegitimacy, she passed herself off as the widow of Charles Abram Marc Gaulis, "a merchant and member of a prominent Swiss family, whom she met in Cadiz". (His sister Albertina Mariana marrie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dionysius Lardner
Professor Dionysius Lardner FRS FRSE (3 April 179329 April 1859) was an Irish scientific writer who popularised science and technology, and edited the 133-volume '' Cabinet Cyclopædia''. Early life in Dublin He was born in Dublin on 3 April 1793 the son of William Lardner, a solicitor in Dublin, who wished his son to follow the same calling. After some years of uncongenial desk work, Lardner entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1812, and obtained a B.A. in 1817 and an M.A. in 1819, winning many prizes. He married Cecilia Flood on 19 December 1815, but they separated in 1820 and were divorced in 1835. About the time of the separation, he began a relationship with a married woman, Anne Maria Darley Boursiquot, the wife of a Dublin wine merchant. It is believed that he fathered her son, Dion Boucicault, the actor and dramatist. Lardner provided him with financial support until 1840. Whilst in Dublin, Lardner began to write and lecture on scientific and mathematical matters, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rambles In Germany And Italy
''Rambles in Germany and Italy, in 1840, 1842, and 1843'' is a travel narrative by the British Romantic author Mary Shelley. Issued in 1844, it is her last published work. Published in two volumes, the text describes two European trips that Mary Shelley took with her son, Percy Florence Shelley, and several of his university friends. Mary Shelley had lived in Italy with her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, between 1818 and 1823. For her, Italy was associated with both joy and grief: she had written much while there but she had also lost her husband and two of her children. Thus, although she was anxious to return, the trip was tinged with sorrow. Shelley describes her journey as a pilgrimage, which will help cure her depression. At the end of the second trip, Mary Shelley spent time in Paris and associated herself with the "Young Italy" movement, Italian exiles who were in favour of Italian independence and unification. One revolutionary in particular attracted her: Ferdinand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falkner (novel)
''Falkner'' (1837) is the penultimate book published by the author Mary Shelley. Like Shelley's earlier novel ''Lodore'' (1835), it charts a young woman's education under a tyrannical father figure. Plot As a six-year-old orphan, Elizabeth Raby prevents Rupert Falkner from committing suicide; Falkner then adopts her and brings her up to be a model of virtue. However, she falls in love with Gerald Neville, whose mother Falkner had unintentionally driven to her death years before. When Falkner is finally acquitted of murdering Neville's mother, Elizabeth's female values subdue the destructive impulses of the two men she loves, who are reconciled and unite with Elizabeth in domestic harmony. Reception ''Falkner'' is the only one of Shelley's novels in which the heroine's agenda triumphs. In critic Kate Ferguson Ellis's view, the novel's resolution proposes that when female values triumph over violent and destructive masculinity, men will be freed to express the "compassion, symp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lodore
''Lodore'', also published under the title ''The Beautiful Widow'', is the penultimate novel by Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, completed in 1833 and published in 1835. Plot and themes In ''Lodore'', Shelley focused her theme of power and responsibility on the microcosm of the family. The central story follows the fortunes of the wife and daughter of the title character, Lord Lodore, who is killed in a duel at the end of the first volume, leaving a trail of legal, financial, and familial obstacles for the two "heroines" to negotiate. Mary Shelley places female characters at the centre of the ensuing narratives: Lodore's daughter, Ethel, raised to be over-dependent on paternal control; his estranged wife, Cornelia, preoccupied with the norms and appearances of aristocratic society; and the intellectual and independent Fanny Derham, with whom both are contrasted. The novel's modern editor, Lisa Vargo, has noted the text's engagement with political and ideological issues, particul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Last Man (Mary Shelley Novel)
''The Last Man'' is an apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, first published in 1826. The narrative concerns Europe in the late 21st century, ravaged by a mysterious plague pandemic that rapidly sweeps across the entire globe, ultimately resulting in the near-extinction of humanity. It also includes discussion of the British state as a republic, for which Shelley sat in meetings of the House of Commons to gain insight to the governmental system of the Romantic era. The novel includes many fictive allusions to her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, who drowned in a shipwreck four years before the book's publication, as well as their close friend Lord Byron, who had died two years previously. ''The Last Man'' was critically savaged and remained largely obscure at the time of its publication. It was not until the 1960s that the novel resurfaced for the public as a work of fiction, not prophecy. ''The Last Man'' is one of the first pieces of dystopian fiction pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apocalyptic And Post-apocalyptic Fiction
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronomical, such as an impact event; destructive, such as nuclear holocaust or resource depletion; medical, such as a pandemic, whether natural or human-caused; end time, such as the Last Judgment, Second Coming or Ragnarök; or more imaginative, such as a zombie apocalypse, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics or alien invasion. The story may involve attempts to prevent an apocalypse event, deal with the impact and consequences of the event itself, or it may be post-apocalyptic, set after the event. The time may be directly after the catastrophe, focusing on the psychology of survivors, the way to keep the human race alive and together as one, or considerably later, often including that the existence of pre-catastro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fortunes Of Perkin Warbeck
''The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck: A Romance'' is an 1830 historical novel by Mary Shelley about the life of Perkin Warbeck. The book takes a Yorkist point of view and proceeds from the conceit that Perkin Warbeck died in childhood and the supposed impostor was indeed Richard of Shrewsbury. Henry VII of England is repeatedly described as a "fiend" who hates Elizabeth of York, his wife and Richard's sister, and the future Henry VIII, mentioned only twice in the novel, is a vile youth who abuses dogs. Her preface establishes that records of the Tower of London, as well as the histories of Edward Hall, Raphael Holinshed, and Francis Bacon, the letters of Sir John Ramsay to Henry VII that are printed in the Appendix to John Pinkerton's History of Scotland establish this as fact. Each chapter opens with a quotation. The entire book is prefaced with a quotation in French by Georges Chastellain and Jean Molinet. Plot and themes In this novel, Mary Shelley returned to ''The Last Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valperga (novel)
''Valperga: or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca'' is an 1823 historical novel by the Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, set amongst the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines (the latter of which she spelt "Ghibeline"). Publication details Mary Shelley's original title is now the subtitle; ''Valperga'' was selected by her father, William Godwin, who edited the work for publication between 1821 and February 1823. His edits emphasised the female protagonist and shortened the novel. Plot summary ''Valperga'' is a historical novel which relates the adventures of the early fourteenth-century despot Castruccio Castracani, a real historical figure who became the lord of Lucca and conquered Florence. In the novel, his armies threaten the fictional fortress of Valperga, governed by Countess Euthanasia, the woman he loves. He forces her to choose between her feelings for him and political liberty. She chooses the latter and sails off to her death. Themes Through the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viareggio
Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as well as being the home of the famous carnival of Viareggio (dating back to 1873), and its papier-mâché floats, which (since 1925), parade along the promenade known as "Passeggiata a mare", in the weeks of Carnival. The symbol of the carnival of Viareggio and its official mask is Burlamacco, designed and invented by Uberto Bonetti in 1930. The city traces its roots back to the first half of the 16th century when it became the only gate to the sea for the Republic of Lucca. The oldest building in Viareggio, known as Torre Matilde, dates back to this time and was built by the Lucchesi in 1541 as a defensive fortification to fight the constant menace of corsair incursions. Viareggio is also an active industrial and manufacturing centre; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
