Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Romantic poets Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...

. 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 Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as ''Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

, and

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

. American literary critic

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking wor ...

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." Shelly's reputation fluctuated during the 20th century, but in recent decades he has achieved increasing critical acclaim for the sweeping momentum of his poetic imagery, his mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of sceptical, idealist, and materialist ideas in his work. Among his best-known works are "

Ozymandias "Ozymandias" ( ) is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). It was first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of '' The Examiner'' of London. The poem was included the following year in Shelley's co ...

" (1818), "

Ode to the West Wind "Ode to the West Wind" is an ode, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 in Cascine wood near Florence, Italy. It was originally published in 1820 by Charles Ollier in London as part of the collection '' Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in ...

" (1819), "

To a Skylark "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 Collier in London. It was inspired by an evening walk in the country near L ...

" (1820), the philosophical essay "

The Necessity of Atheism "The Necessity of Atheism" is an essay on atheism by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, printed in 1811 by Charles and William Phillips in Worthing while Shelley was a student at University College, Oxford. An enigmatically signed copy ...

" written alongside his friend T. J. Hogg (1811), and the political ballad "

The Mask of Anarchy ''The Masque of Anarchy'' (or ''The Mask of Anarchy'') is a British political poem written in 1819 (see 1819 in poetry) by Percy Bysshe Shelley following the Peterloo Massacre of that year. In his call for freedom, it is perhaps the first moder ...

" (1819). His other major works include the verse drama ''

The Cenci ''The Cenci, A Tragedy, in Five Acts'' (1819) is a verse drama in five acts by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in the summer of 1819, and inspired by a real Italian family, the House of Cenci (in particular, Beatrice Cenci, pronounced CHEN-chee). ...

'' (1819) and long poems such as ''

Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude ''Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude'' is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written from 10 September to 14 December in 1815 in Bishopsgate, near Windsor Great Park and first published in 1816. The poem was without a title when Shelley passed it a ...

'' (1815), ''

Julian and Maddalo ''Julian and Maddalo: A Conversation'' (1818–1819 in poetry, 19) is a poem in 617 lines of Enjambment, enjambed Heroic verse, heroic couplets by Percy Bysshe Shelley published posthumously in 1824. Background This work was penned in the autum ...

'' (1819), ''

Adonais ''Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc.'' () is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley for John Keats in 1821, and widely regarded as one of Shelley's best and best-known works.Prometheus Unbound'' (1820)—widely considered his masterpiece—'' Hellas'' (1822), and his final, unfinished work, ''

The Triumph of Life ''The Triumph of Life'' was the last major work by Percy Bysshe Shelley before his death in 1822.Sandy, Mark. "The Triumph of Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002 http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID ...

'' (1822). Shelley also wrote

prose fiction Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include o ...

and a quantity of essays on political, social, and philosophical issues. Much of this poetry and prose was not published in his lifetime, or only published in expurgated form, due to the risk of prosecution for political and religious libel. From the 1820s, his poems and political and ethical writings became popular in Owenist, Chartist, and

radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

political circles, and later drew admirers as diverse as

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, and

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

. Shelley's life was marked by family crises, ill health, and a backlash against his

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

, political views and defiance of social conventions. He went into permanent self-exile in Italy in 1818, and over the next four years produced what Leader and O'Neill call "some of the finest poetry of the Romantic period". His second wife,

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...

, was the author of ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...

''. He died in a boating accident in 1822 at the age of 29.

Life

Early life and education

Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 at

Field Place Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

Warnham Warnham is a village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. The village is centred north-northwest of Horsham, from London, to the west of the A24 road. Other named settlements within the parish include the hamlets of ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England. He was the eldest son of Sir

Timothy Shelley Sir Timothy Shelley, 2nd Baronet (7 September 1753 – 24 April 1844) was an English politician and lawyer. He was the son of Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet of Castle Goring and the father of Romantic poet and dramatist Percy Bysshe Shelley. ...

(1753–1844), a Whig Member of Parliament for

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

from 1790 to 1792 and for Shoreham between 1806 and 1812, and his wife, Elizabeth Pilfold (1763–1846), the daughter of a successful butcher. He had four younger sisters and one much younger brother. Shelley's early childhood was sheltered and mostly happy. He was particularly close to his sisters and his mother, who encouraged him to hunt, fish and ride. At age six, he was sent to a day school run by the vicar of

church, where he displayed an impressive memory and gift for languages. In 1802 he entered the

Syon House Syon House is the west London residence of the Duke of Northumberland. A Grade I listed building, it lies within the 200-acre (80 hectare) Syon Park, in the London Borough of Hounslow. The family's traditional central London residence had be ...

Academy of

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, where his cousin

Thomas Medwin Thomas Medwin (20 March 1788 –2 August 1869) was an early 19th-century English writer, poet and translator. He is known chiefly for his biography of his cousin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and for published recollections of his friend, Lord Byron. ...

was a pupil. Shelley was bullied and unhappy at the school and sometimes responded with violent rage. He also began suffering from the nightmares, hallucinations and sleep walking that were to periodically afflict him throughout his life. Shelley developed an interest in science which supplemented his voracious reading of tales of mystery, romance and the supernatural. During his holidays at Field Place, his sisters were often terrified at being subjected to his experiments with gunpowder, acids and electricity. Back at school he blew up a paling fence with gunpowder. In 1804, Shelley entered

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, a period which he later recalled with loathing. He was subjected to particularly severe mob bullying which the perpetrators called "Shelley-baits". A number of biographers and contemporaries have attributed the bullying to Shelley's aloofness, nonconformity and refusal to take part in

fagging Fagging was a traditional practice in British public schools and also at many other boarding schools, whereby younger pupils were required to act as personal servants to the eldest boys. Although probably originating earlier, the first account ...

. His peculiarities and violent rages earned him the nickname "Mad Shelley". His interest in the occult and science continued, and contemporaries describe him giving an electric shock to a master, blowing up a tree stump with gunpowder and attempting to raise spirits with occult rituals. In his senior years, Shelley came under the influence of a part-time teacher, Dr

James Lind James Lind (4 October 1716 – 13 July 1794) was a Scottish doctor. He was a pioneer of naval hygiene in the Royal Navy. By conducting one of the first ever clinical trials, he developed the theory that citrus fruits cured scurvy. Lind arg ...

, who encouraged his interest in the occult and introduced him to liberal and radical authors. Shelley also developed an interest in Plato and idealist philosophy which he pursued in later years through self-study. According to Richard Holmes, Shelley, by his leaving year, had gained a reputation as a classical scholar and a tolerated eccentric. In his last term at Eton, his first novel ''

Zastrozzi ''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 Go ...

'' appeared and he had established a following among his fellow students.Holmes, Richard (1974) pp 25–30 Prior to enrolling for

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

in October 1810, Shelley completed ''

Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire ''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 ...

'' (written with his sister Elizabeth), the verse melodrama ''The Wandering Jew'' and the gothic novel '' St. Irvine; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance'' (published 1811). At Oxford Shelley attended few lectures, instead spending long hours reading and conducting scientific experiments in the laboratory he set up in his room. He met a fellow student,

Thomas Jefferson Hogg Thomas Jefferson Hogg (24 May 1792 – 27 August 1862) was a British barrister and writer best known for his friendship with the Romantic poetry, Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Hogg was raised in County Durham, but spent most of hi ...

, who became his closest friend. Shelley became increasingly politicised under Hogg's influence, developing strong radical and anti-Christian views. Such views were dangerous in the reactionary political climate prevailing during Britain's war with Napoleonic France, and Shelley's father warned him against Hogg's influence. In the winter of 1810–1811, Shelley published a series of anonymous political poems and tracts: ''

Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson ''Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson'' was a collection of poetry published in November, 1810 by Percy Bysshe Shelley and his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg while they were students at Oxford University. The pamphlet was subtitled: "Being P ...

'', ''

'' (written in collaboration with Hogg) and ''A Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things''. Shelley mailed ''The Necessity of Atheism'' to all the bishops and heads of colleges at Oxford, and he was called to appear before the college's fellows, including the Dean, George Rowley. His refusal to answer questions put by college authorities regarding whether or not he authored the pamphlet resulted in his

expulsion Expulsion or expelled may refer to: General * Deportation * Ejection (sports) * Eviction * Exile * Expeller pressing * Expulsion (education) * Expulsion from the United States Congress * Extradition * Forced migration * Ostracism * Persona non ...

from Oxford on 25March 1811, along with Hogg. Hearing of his son's expulsion, Shelley's father threatened to cut all contact with Shelley unless he agreed to return home and study under tutors appointed by him. Shelley's refusal to do so led to a falling-out with his father.

Marriage to Harriet Westbrook

In late December 1810, Shelley had met Harriet Westbrook, a pupil at the same boarding school as Shelley's sisters. They corresponded frequently that winter and also after Shelley had been expelled from Oxford. Shelley expounded his radical ideas on politics, religion and marriage to Harriet, and they gradually convinced each other that she was oppressed by her father and at school. Shelley's infatuation with Harriet developed in the months following his expulsion, when he was under severe emotional strain due to the conflict with his family, his bitterness over the breakdown of his romance with his cousin Harriet Grove, and his unfounded belief that he might be suffering from a fatal illness. At the same time, Harriet Westbrook's elder sister Eliza, to whom Harriet was very close, encouraged the young girl's romance with Shelley. Shelley's correspondence with Harriet intensified in July, while he was holidaying in Wales, and in response to her urgent pleas for his protection, he returned to London in early August. Putting aside his philosophical objections to matrimony, he left with the sixteen-year-old Harriet for

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

on 25 August 1811, and they were married there on the 28th. Hearing of the elopement, Harriet's father, John Westbrook, and Shelley's father, Timothy, cut off the allowances of the bride and groom. (Shelley's father believed his son had married beneath him, as Harriet's father had earned his fortune in trade and was the owner of a tavern and coffee house.) WilliamGodwin

Surviving on borrowed money, Shelley and Harriet stayed in Edinburgh for a month, with Hogg living under the same roof. The trio left for

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

in October, and Shelley went on to Sussex to settle matters with his father, leaving Harriet behind with Hogg. Shelley returned from his unsuccessful excursion to find that Eliza had moved in with Harriet and Hogg. Harriet confessed that Hogg had tried to seduce her while Shelley had been away. Shelley, Harriet and Eliza soon left for Keswick in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

, leaving Hogg in York. At this time Shelley was also involved in an intense platonic relationship with Elizabeth Hitchener, a 28-year-old unmarried schoolteacher of advanced views, with whom he had been corresponding. Hitchener, whom Shelley called the "sister of my soul" and "my second self", became his confidante and intellectual companion as he developed his views on politics, religion, ethics and personal relationships. Shelley proposed that she join him, Harriet and Eliza in a communal household where all property would be shared. The Shelleys and Eliza spent December and January in Keswick where Shelley visited

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

whose poetry he admired. Southey was taken with Shelley, even though there was a wide gulf between them politically, and predicted great things for him as a poet. Southey also informed Shelley that

William Godwin William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...

, author of ''

Political Justice ''Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness'' is a 1793 book by the philosopher William Godwin, in which the author outlines his political philosophy. It is the first modern work to expound anarchism. Backg ...

'', which had greatly influenced him in his youth, and which Shelley also admired, was still alive. Shelley wrote to Godwin, offering himself as his devoted disciple. Godwin, who had modified many of his earlier radical views, advised Shelley to reconcile with his father, become a scholar before he published anything else, and give up his avowed plans for political agitation in Ireland. Meanwhile, Shelley had met his father's patron,

Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk (15 March 1746 – 16 December 1815), styled Earl of Surrey from 1777 to 1786, was a British nobleman, peer, and politician. He was the son of Charles Howard, 10th Duke of Norfolk and Catherine Brockho ...

, who helped secure the reinstatement of Shelley's allowance. With Harriet's allowance also restored, Shelley now had the funds for his Irish venture. Their departure for Ireland was precipitated by increasing hostility towards the Shelley household from their landlord and neighbours who were alarmed by Shelley's scientific experiments, pistol shooting and radical political views. As tension mounted, Shelley claimed he had been attacked in his home by ruffians, an event which might have been real or a delusional episode triggered by stress. This was the first of a series of episodes in subsequent years where Shelley claimed to have been attacked by strangers during periods of personal crisis. Early in 1812, Shelley wrote, published and personally distributed in Dublin three political tracts: ''An Address, to the Irish People; Proposals for an Association of Philanthropists;'' and ''Declaration of Rights''. He also delivered a speech at a meeting of O'Connell's Catholic Committee in which he called for

Catholic emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

, repeal of the Acts of Union and an end to the oppression of the Irish poor. Reports of Shelley's subversive activities were sent to the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

. Returning from Ireland, the Shelley household travelled to Wales, then Devon, where they again came under government surveillance for distributing subversive literature. Elizabeth Hitchener joined the household in Devon, but several months later had a falling out with the Shelleys and left. The Shelley household had settled in Tremadog, Wales in September 1812, where Shelley worked on ''

Queen Mab Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', where "she is the fairies' midwife". Later, she appears in other poetry and literature, and in various guises in drama and cinema. In the play, her activity i ...

'', a utopian allegory with extensive notes preaching atheism, free love, republicanism and vegetarianism. The poem was published the following year in a private edition of 250 copies, although few were initially distributed because of the risk of prosecution for seditious and religious libel. In February 1813, Shelley claimed he was attacked in his home at night. The incident might have been real, a hallucination brought on by stress, or a hoax staged by Shelley in order to escape government surveillance, creditors and his entanglements in local politics. The Shelleys and Eliza fled to Ireland, then London. Back in England, Shelley's debts mounted as he tried unsuccessfully to reach a financial settlement with his father. On 23 June Harriet gave birth to a girl, Eliza Ianthe Shelley, and in the following months the relationship between Shelley and his wife deteriorated. Shelley resented the influence Harriet's sister had over her, while Harriet was alienated by Shelley's close friendship with an attractive widow, Harriet Boinville, and her daughter Cornelia Turner. Following Ianthe's birth, the Shelleys moved frequently across London, Wales, the Lake District, Scotland and Berkshire to escape creditors and search for a home. In March 1814, Shelley remarried Harriet in London to settle any doubts about the legality of their Edinburgh wedding and secure the rights of their child. Nevertheless, the Shelleys lived apart for most of the following months, and Shelley reflected bitterly on: "my rash & heartless union with Harriet".

Elopement with Mary Godwin

In May 1814, Shelley began visiting his mentor Godwin almost daily, and soon fell in love with

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Godwin and the late feminist author

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

. Shelley and Mary declared their love for each other during a visit to her mother's grave in the churchyard of

St Pancras Old Church St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in Somers Town, Central London. It is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, and is believed by many to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England. The church i ...

on 26 June. When Shelley told Godwin that he intended to leave Harriet and live with Mary, his mentor banished him from the house and forbade Mary from seeing him. Shelley and Mary eloped to Europe on 28 July, taking Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont with them. Before leaving, Shelley had secured a loan of £3,000 but had left most of the funds at the disposal of Godwin and Harriet, who was now pregnant. The financial arrangement with Godwin led to rumours that he had sold his daughters to Shelley. Shelley, Mary and Claire made their way across war-ravaged France where Shelley wrote to Harriet, asking her to meet them in Switzerland with the money he had left for her. Hearing nothing from Harriet in Switzerland, and unable to secure sufficient funds or suitable accommodation, the three travelled to Germany and Holland before returning to England on 13 September. Shelley spent the next few months trying to raise loans and avoid bailiffs. Mary was pregnant, lonely, depressed and ill. Her mood was not improved when she heard that, on 30 November, Harriet had given birth to Charles Bysshe Shelley, heir to the Shelley fortune and baronetcy. This was followed, in early January 1815, by news that Shelley's grandfather, Sir Bysshe, had died leaving an estate worth £220,000. The settlement of the estate, and a financial settlement between Shelley and his father (now Sir Timothy), however, was not concluded until April the following year. HistorySixWeeksTourMap

In February 1815, Mary gave premature birth to a baby girl who died ten days later, deepening her depression. In the following weeks, Mary became close to Hogg who temporarily moved into the household. Shelley was almost certainly having a sexual relationship with Claire at this time, and it is possible that Mary, with Shelley's encouragement, was also having a sexual relationship with Hogg. In May Claire left the household, at Mary's insistence, to reside in Lynmouth. In August Shelley and Mary moved to Bishopsgate where Shelley worked on ''

Alastor Alastor (; Ancient Greek: Ἀλάστωρ, English translation: "avenger") refers to a number of people and concepts in Greek mythology: *Alastor, an epithet of the Greek God Zeus, according to Hesychius of Alexandria and the ''Etymologicum Ma ...

'', a long poem in blank verse based on the myth of Narcissus and

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the list ...

. ''Alastor'' was published in an edition of 250 in early 1816 to poor sales and largely unfavourable reviews from the conservative press. On 24 January 1816, Mary gave birth to William Shelley. Shelley was delighted to have another son, but was suffering from the strain of prolonged financial negotiations with his father, Harriet and William Godwin. Shelley showed signs of delusional behaviour and was contemplating an escape to the continent.

Byron

Claire initiated a sexual relationship with

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

in April 1816, just before his self-exile on the continent, and then arranged for Byron to meet Shelley, Mary and her in Geneva. Shelley admired Byron's poetry and had sent him ''Queen Mab'' and other poems. Shelley's party arrived in Geneva in May and rented a house close to

Villa Diodati The Villa Diodati is a mansion in the village of Cologny near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, notable because Lord Byron rented it and stayed there with John Polidori in the summer of 1816. Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who had rented a house ...

, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Byron was staying. There Shelley, Byron and the others engaged in discussions about literature, science and "various philosophical doctrines". One night, while Byron was reciting Coleridge's '' Christabel'', Shelley suffered a severe panic attack with hallucinations. The previous night Mary had had a more productive vision or nightmare which inspired her novel ''Frankenstein''. Shelley and Byron then took a boating tour around Lake Geneva, which inspired Shelley to write his "

Hymn to Intellectual Beauty "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" is a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816 and published in 1817. Composition and publication "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" was written during the summer of 1816 while Percy and Mary Shelley stayed with Lord ...

", his first substantial poem since ''Alastor''. A tour of

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...

in the French Alps inspired "

Mont Blanc Mont Blanc (french: Mont Blanc ; it, Monte Bianco , both meaning "white mountain") is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, rising above sea level. It is the second-most prominent mountain in Europe, after Mount Elbrus, and i ...

", which has been described as an atheistic response to Coleridge's "Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamoni". During this tour, Shelley often signed guest books with a declaration that he was an atheist. These declarations were seen by other British tourists, including Southey, which hardened attitudes against Shelley back home. Relations between Byron and Shelley's party became strained when Byron was told that Claire was pregnant with his child. Shelley, Mary, and Claire left Switzerland in late August, with arrangements for the expected baby still unclear, although Shelley made provision for Claire and the baby in his will. In January 1817 Claire gave birth to a daughter by Byron who she named Alba, but later renamed Allegra in accordance with Byron's wishes.

Marriage to Mary Godwin

Shelley and Mary returned to England in September 1816, and in early October they heard that Mary's half-sister

Fanny Imlay Frances Imlay (14 May 1794 – 9 October 1816), also known as Fanny Godwin and Frances Wollstonecraft, was the illegitimate daughter of the British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the American commercial speculator and diplomat Gilbert Imla ...

had killed herself. Godwin believed that Fanny had been in love with Shelley, and Shelley himself suffered depression and guilt over her death, writing: "Friend had I known thy secret grief / Should we have parted so." Further tragedy followed in December when Shelley's estranged wife Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine. Harriet, pregnant and living alone at the time, believed that she had been abandoned by her new lover. In her suicide letter she asked Shelley to take custody of their son Charles but to leave their daughter in her sister Eliza's care. Shelley married Mary Godwin on 30 December, despite his philosophical objections to the institution. The marriage was intended to help secure Shelley's custody of his children by Harriet and to placate Godwin who had refused to see Shelley and Mary because of their previous adulterous relationship. After a prolonged legal battle, the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

eventually awarded custody of Shelley and Harriet's children to foster parents, on the grounds that Shelley had abandoned his first wife for Mary without cause and was an atheist. In March 1817 the Shelleys moved to the village of

Marlow, Buckinghamshire Marlow (; historically Great Marlow or Chipping Marlow) is a town and civil parish within the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the River Thames, south-southwest of High Wycombe, west-northwest of Maidenhead and ...

, where Shelley's friend

Thomas Love Peacock Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work. Peacock wrote satirical novels, ...

lived. The Shelley household included Claire and her baby Allegra, both of whose presence was resented by Mary.Bieri, James, (2005), pp 41–42 Shelley's generosity with money and increasing debts also led to financial and marital stress, as did Godwin's frequent requests for financial help. On 2 September Mary gave birth to a daughter, Clara Everina Shelley. Soon after, Shelley left for London with Claire, which increased Mary's resentment towards her step-sister. Shelley was arrested for two days in London over money he owed, and attorneys visited Mary in Marlowe over Shelley's debts. Shelley took part in the literary and political circle that surrounded

Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centr ...

, and during this period he met

William Hazlitt William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English lan ...

and

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

. Shelley's major work during this time was ''

Laon and Cythna ''The Revolt of Islam'' (1818) is a poem in twelve cantos composed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817. The poem was originally published under the title ''Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century'' b ...

'', a long narrative poem featuring incest and attacks on religion. It was hastily withdrawn after publication due to fears of prosecution for religious libel, and was re-edited and reissued as ''

The Revolt of Islam ''The Revolt of Islam'' (1818) is a poem in twelve cantos composed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817. The poem was originally published under the title ''Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century'' b ...

'' in January 1818. Shelley also published two political tracts under a pseudonym: ''A Proposal for putting Reform to the Vote throughout the Kingdom'' (March 1817) and ''An Address to the People on the Death of Princess Charlotte'' (November 1817). In December he wrote "Ozymandias", which is considered to be one of his finest sonnets, as part of a competition with friend and fellow poet Horace Smith.

Italy

Joseph Severn - Posthumous Portrait of Shelley Writing Prometheus Unbound 1845

On 12 March 1818 the Shelleys and Claire left England to escape its "tyranny civil and religious". A doctor had also recommended that Shelley go to Italy for his chronic lung complaint, and Shelley had arranged to take Claire's daughter, Allegra, to her father Byron who was now in Venice. After travelling some months through France and Italy, Shelley left Mary and baby Clara at

Bagni di Lucca Bagni di Lucca (formerly Bagno a Corsena) is a comune of Tuscany, Italy, in the Province of Lucca with a population of about 6,100. The comune has 27 named frazioni (wards). History Bagni di Lucca has been known for its thermal springs since th ...

(in today's Tuscany) while he travelled with Claire to Venice to see Byron and make arrangements for visiting Allegra. Byron invited the Shelleys to stay at his summer residence at Este, and Shelley urged Mary to meet him there. Clara became seriously ill on the journey and died on 24 September in Venice. Following Clara's death, Mary fell into a long period of depression and emotional estrangement from Shelley. The Shelleys moved to Naples on 1 December, where they stayed for three months. During this period Shelley was ill, depressed and almost suicidal: a state of mind reflected in his poem "Stanzas written in Dejection – December 1818, Near Naples". While in Naples, Shelley registered the birth and baptism of a baby girl, Elena Adelaide Shelley (born 27 December), naming himself as the father and falsely naming Mary as the mother. The parentage of Elena has never been conclusively established. Biographers have variously speculated that she was adopted by Shelley to console Mary for the loss of Clara, that she was Shelley's child to Claire, that she was his child to his servant Elise Foggi, or that she was the child of a "mysterious lady" who had followed Shelley to the continent. Shelley registered the birth and baptism on 27 February 1819, and the household left Naples for Rome the following day, leaving Elena with carers. Elena was to die in a poor suburb of Naples on 9 June 1820. In Rome, Shelley was in poor health, probably suffering from nephritis and tuberculosis which later was in remission. Nevertheless, he made significant progress on three major works: ''

'', '' Prometheus Unbound'' and ''

''. ''Julian and Maddalo'' is an autobiographical poem which explores the relationship between Shelley and Byron and analyses Shelley's personal crises of 1818 and 1819. The poem was completed in the summer of 1819, but was not published in Shelley's lifetime. ''Prometheus Unbound'' is a long dramatic poem inspired by Aeschylus's retelling of the Prometheus myth. It was completed in late 1819 and published in 1820. ''The Cenci'' is a verse drama of rape, murder and incest based on the story of the Renaissance Count Cenci of Rome and his daughter Beatrice. Shelley completed the play in September and the first edition was published that year. It was to become one of his most popular works and the only one to have two authorised editions in his lifetime. Shelley's three-year-old son William died in June, probably of malaria. The new tragedy caused a further decline in Shelley's health and deepened Mary's depression. On 4 August she wrote: "We have now lived five years together; and if all the events of the five years were blotted out, I might be happy".The Shelleys were now living in

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

where, in September, Shelley heard of the

Peterloo Massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliament ...

of peaceful protesters in Manchester. Within two weeks he had completed one of his most famous political poems, ''

'', and despatched it to Leigh Hunt for publication. Hunt, however, decided not to publish it for fear of prosecution for seditious libel. The poem was only officially published in 1832. The Shelleys moved to Florence in October, where Shelley read a scathing review of the ''Revolt of Islam'' (and its earlier version ''Laon and Cythna'') in the conservative ''Quarterly Review''. Shelley was angered by the personal attack on him in the article which he erroneously believed had been written by Southey. His bitterness over the review lasted for the rest of his life. On 12 November, Mary gave birth to a boy,

Percy Florence Shelley Sir Percy Florence Shelley, 3rd Baronet (12 November 1819 – 5 December 1889) was the son of the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his second wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, novelist and author of ''Frankenstein''. He was the only child ...

. Around the time of Percy's birth, the Shelleys met

Sophia Stacey Sophia Stacey (1791– December 11, 1874) was a friend of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, to whom he dedicated the ''Ode'' which begins: ''Thou art fair, and few are fairer, ''Of the nymphs of earth or ocean,'' ''They are robes that fi ...

, who was a ward of one of Shelley's uncles and was staying at the same pension as the Shelleys. Sophia, a talented harpist and singer, formed a friendship with Shelley while Mary was preoccupied with her newborn son. Shelley wrote at least five love poems and fragments for Sophia including "Song written for an Indian Air". The Shelleys moved to Pisa in January 1820, ostensibly to consult a doctor who had been recommended to them. There they became friends with the Irish republican Margaret Mason ( Lady Margaret Mountcashell) and her common-law husband

George William Tighe George William Tighe (25 February 1776March 1837) was an Irish agricultural theorist who spent much of his life in Italy. Through his marriage to Margaret King, he exerted an influence on the radical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Agriculture and sc ...

. Mrs Mason became the inspiration for Shelley's poem "The Sensitive Plant", and Shelley's discussions with Mason and Tighe influenced his political thought and his critical interest in the population theories of

Thomas Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book '' An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

. In March Shelley wrote to friends that Mary was depressed, suicidal and hostile towards him. Shelley was also beset by financial worries, as creditors from England pressed him for payment and he was obliged to make secret payments in connection with his "Neapolitan charge" Elena. Meanwhile, Shelley was writing ''

A Philosophical View of Reform ''A Philosophical View of Reform'' is a major prose work by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in 1819-20 and first published in 1920 by Oxford University Press. The political essay is Shelley's longest prose work. Analysis Shelley composed ''A Philos ...

'', a political essay which he had begun in Rome. The unfinished essay, which remained unpublished in Shelley's lifetime, has been called "one of the most advanced and sophisticated documents of political philosophy in the nineteenth century". Another crisis erupted in June when Shelley claimed that he had been assaulted in the Pisan post office by a man accusing him of foul crimes. Shelley's biographer

James Bieri James Bieri (born 1927) is a psychologist and biographer who introduced in 1955 the concept of cognitive complexity, derived from his doctoral study with George A. Kelly. Subsequently, integrating ideas from information theory and psychophysics, ...

suggests that this incident was possibly a delusional episode brought on by extreme stress, as Shelley was being blackmailed by a former servant, Paolo Foggi, over baby Elena. It is likely that the blackmail was connected with a story spread by another former servant, Elise Foggi, that Shelley had fathered a child to Claire in Naples and had sent it to a foundling home. Shelley, Claire and Mary denied this story, and Elise later recanted. In July, hearing that John Keats was seriously ill in England, Shelley wrote to the poet inviting him to stay with him at Pisa. Keats replied with hopes of seeing him, but instead, arrangements were made for Keats to travel to Rome. Following the death of Keats in 1821, Shelley wrote ''

Adonais ''Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc.'' () is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley for John Keats in 1821, and widely regarded as one of Shelley's best and best-known works.Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking wor ...

considers one of the major pastoral elegies. The poem was published in Pisa in July 1821, but sold few copies. In early July 1820, Shelley heard that baby Elena had died on 9 June. In the months following the post office incident and Elena's death, relations between Mary and Claire deteriorated and Claire spent most of the next two years living separately from the Shelleys, mainly in Florence. That December Shelley met Teresa (Emilia) Viviani, who was the 19-year-old daughter of the Governor of Pisa and was living in a convent awaiting a suitable marriage. Shelley visited her several times over the next few months and they started a passionate correspondence which dwindled after her marriage the following September. Emilia was the inspiration for Shelley's major poem ''

Epipsychidion ''Epipsychidion'' is a major poetical work published in 1821 by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The work was subtitled: ''Verses addressed to the noble and unfortunate Lady Emilia V, now imprisoned in the convent of''. The title is Greek for "concerning ...

''. In March 1821 Shelley completed " A Defence of Poetry", a response to Peacock's article "

The Four Ages of Poetry "The Four Ages of Poetry", an essay of 1820 by Thomas Love Peacock, was both a significant study of poetry in its own right, and the stimulus for the Defence of Poetry by Shelley. Setting and tone Much of the ‘Four Ages’ is an attack from a ut ...

". Shelley's essay, with its famous conclusion "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world", remained unpublished in his lifetime. Shelley went alone to Ravenna in early August to see Byron, making a detour to Livorno for a rendezvous with Claire. Shelley stayed with Byron for two weeks and invited the older poet to spend the winter in Pisa. After Shelley heard Byron read his newly completed fifth canto of ''

Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...

'' he wrote to Mary: "I despair of rivalling Byron." In November Byron moved into Villa Lanfranchi in Pisa, just across the river from the Shelleys. Byron became the centre of the "Pisan circle" which was to include Shelley, Thomas Medwin, Edward Williams and Edward Trelawny. In the early months of 1822 Shelley became increasingly close to

Jane Williams Jane Williams (''née'' Jane Cleveland; 21 January 1798 – 8 November 1884) was a British woman best known for her association with the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Jane was raised in England and India, before marrying a naval ...

, who was living with her partner Edward Williams in the same building as the Shelleys. Shelley wrote a number of love poems for Jane, including "The Serpent is shut out of Paradise" and "With a Guitar, to Jane". Shelley's obvious affection for Jane was to cause increasing tension between Shelley, Edward Williams and Mary. Claire arrived in Pisa in April at Shelley's invitation, and soon after they heard that her daughter Allegra had died of typhus in Ravenna. The Shelleys and Claire then moved to Villa Magni, near

Lerici Lerici ( lij, Lerxi, locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of La Spezia in Liguria (northern Italy), part of the Italian Riviera. It is situated on the coast of the Gulf of La Spezia, southeast of La Spezia. It is known as the place ...

on the shores of the

Gulf of La Spezia The Gulf of La Spezia (Italian: ''Golfo della Spezia'' or ''Golfo dei poeti'') is a body of water on the north-western coast of Italy and part of the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, specifically of Ligurian Sea. It measures some 4.5 (length) by 3-3.5 (wi ...

. Shelley acted as mediator between Claire and Byron over arrangements for the burial of their daughter, and the added strain led to Shelley having a series of hallucinations. Mary almost died from a miscarriage on 16 June, her life only being saved by Shelley's effective first aid. Two days later Shelley wrote to a friend that there was no sympathy between Mary and him and if the past and future could be obliterated he would be content in his boat with Jane and her guitar. That same day he also wrote to Trelawny asking for

prussic acid Hydrogen cyanide, sometimes called prussic acid, is a chemical compound with the formula HCN and structure . It is a colorless, extremely poisonous, and flammable liquid that boils slightly above room temperature, at . HCN is produced on an in ...

. The following week, Shelley woke the household with his screaming over a nightmare or hallucination in which he saw Edward and Jane Williams as walking corpses and himself strangling Mary. During this time, Shelley was writing his final major poem, the unfinished ''The Triumph of Life'', which Harold Bloom has called "the most despairing poem he wrote".

Death

On 1 July 1822, Shelley and Edward Williams sailed in Shelley's new boat the ''Don Juan'' to Livorno where Shelley met Leigh Hunt and Byron in order to make arrangements for a new journal, ''The Liberal''. After the meeting, on 8 July, Shelley, Williams and their boat boy sailed out of Livorno for Lerici. A few hours later, the ''Don Juan'' and its inexperienced crew were lost in a storm. The vessel, an open boat, had been custom-built in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

for Shelley. Mary Shelley declared in her "Note on Poems of 1822" (1839) that the design had a defect and that the boat was never seaworthy. In fact, however, the ''Don Juan'' was overmasted; the sinking was due to a severe storm and poor seamanship of the three men on board."The Sinking of the ''Don Juan''" by

Donald Prell Donald B. Prell (July 7, 1924 – July 28, 2020) was an American World War II veteran, venture capitalist and futurist who created ''Datamation'', the first magazine devoted solely to the computer hardware and software industry. Early life Prell ...

, ''Keats–Shelley Journal'', Vol. LVI, 2007, pp. 136–54 Shelley's badly decomposed body washed ashore at

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 ...

ten days later and was identified by Trelawny from the clothing and a copy of Keats's ''

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

'' in a jacket pocket. On 16 August, his body was cremated on a beach near Viareggio and the ashes were buried in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome. Louis Edouard Fournier - The Funeral of Shelley - Google Art Project

Louis Edouard Fournier - The Funeral of Shelley - Google Art Project

The day after the news of his death reached England, the

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

London newspaper ''The Courier'' printed: "Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry, has been drowned; ''now'' he knows whether there is God or no." Percy Shelley gravestone with clear text

Percy Shelley gravestone with clear text

Shelley's ashes were reburied in a different plot at the cemetery in 1823. His grave bears the Latin inscription ''Cor Cordium'' (Heart of Hearts), and a few lines of "Ariel's Song" from Shakespeare's ''The Tempest'':

Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.

Shelley's remains

When Shelley's body was cremated on the beach, his presumed heart resisted burning and was retrieved by Trelawny. The heart was possibly calcified from an earlier tubercular infection, or was perhaps his liver. Trelawny gave the scorched organ to Hunt, who preserved it in spirits of wine and refused to hand it over to Mary. He finally relented and the heart was eventually buried either at

St Peter's Church, Bournemouth St Peter's Church is a Church of England parish church located in the Bournemouth Town Centre, centre of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. It is a Grade I listed building classed as a 'major parish church', and was completed in 1879 to a design by ...

or in

Christchurch Priory Christchurch Priory is an ecclesiastical parish and former priory church in Christchurch in the English county of Dorset (formerly in Hampshire). It is one of the longest parish churches in the country and is as large as many of the Church of E ...

. Hunt also retrieved a piece of Shelley's jawbone which, in 1913, was given to the Shelley-Keats Memorial in Rome.Anthony Holden, ''The Wit in the Dungeon: A Life of Leigh Hunt'' (2005), ch. 7 'I never beheld him more': 1821-2, p. 166

Family history

Shelley's paternal grandfather was

Bysshe Shelley Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet (21 June 1731 – 6 January 1815) was the grandfather of English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Life Shelley was born in Newark, Essex County, Province of New Jersey (present-day United States) on 21 June ...

(21 June 1731 – 6 January 1815), who, in 1806, became Sir Bysshe Shelley, First Baronet of Castle Goring. On Sir Bysshe's death in 1815, Shelley's father inherited the baronetcy, becoming Sir Timothy Shelley. Shelley was the eldest of several legitimate children. Bieri argues that Shelley had an older illegitimate brother but, if he existed, little is known of him. His younger siblings were: John (1806–1866), Margaret (1801–1887), Hellen (1799–1885), Mary (1797–1884), Hellen (1796–1796, died in infancy) and Elizabeth (1794–1831). Shelley had two children by his first wife Harriet: Eliza Ianthe Shelley (1813–1876) and Charles Bysshe Shelley (1814–1826). He had four children by his second wife Mary: an unnamed daughter born in 1815 who only survived ten days; William Shelley (1816–1819); Clara Everina Shelley (1817–1818); and

(1819–1889). Shelley also declared himself to be the father of Elena Adelaide Shelley (1818–1820), who might have been an illegitimate or adopted daughter. His son Percy Florence became the Third Baronet of Castle Goring in 1844, following the death of Sir Timothy Shelley.

Ancestry

Political, religious and ethical views

Politics

Shelley was a political radical who was influenced by thinkers such as Rousseau, Paine, Godwin, Wollstonecraft, and Leigh Hunt. He advocated Catholic Emancipation, republicanism, parliamentary reform, the extension of the franchise, freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, an end to aristocratic and clerical privilege, and a more equal distribution of income and wealth. The views he expressed in his published works were often more moderate than those he advocated privately, because of the risk of prosecution for seditious libel and his desire not to alienate more moderate friends and political allies. Nevertheless, his political writings and activism brought him to the attention of the Home Office and he came under government surveillance at various periods. Shelley's most influential political work in the years immediately following his death was the poem ''Queen Mab'', which included extensive notes on political themes. The work went through 14 official and pirated editions by 1845, and became popular in Owenist and Chartist circles. His longest political essay, ''A Philosophical View of Reform'', was written in 1820, but not published until 1920.

Nonviolence

Shelley's advocacy of nonviolent resistance was largely based on his reflections on the French Revolution and rise of Napoleon, and his belief that violent protest would increase the prospect of a military despotism. Although Shelley sympathised with supporters of Irish independence, such as

Peter Finnerty Peter Finnerty (1766?–11 May 1822) was an Irish printer, publisher, and journalist in both Dublin and London associated with radical, reform and democratic causes. In Dublin, he was a committed United Irishman, but was imprisoned in the course ...

and

Robert Emmet Robert Emmet (4 March 177820 September 1803) was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Protes ...

, he did not support violent rebellion. In his early pamphlet ''An Address, to the Irish People'' (1812) he wrote: "I do not wish to see things changed now, because it cannot be done without violence, and we may assure ourselves that none of us are fit for any change, however good, if we condescend to employ force in a cause we think right." In his later essay ''A Philosophical View of Reform'', Shelley did concede that there were political circumstances in which force might be justified: "The last resort of resistance is undoubtably 'sic''insurrection. The right of insurrection is derived from the employment of armed force to counteract the will of the nation." Shelley supported the 1820 armed rebellion against absolute monarchy in Spain, and the 1821 armed Greek uprising against Ottoman rule. Shelley's poem "The Mask of Anarchy" (written in 1819, but first published in 1832) has been called "perhaps the first modern statement of the principle of

nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, cons ...

". Gandhi was familiar with the poem and it is possible that Shelley had an indirect influence on Gandhi through

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...

's ''

Civil Disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

''.

Religion

Shelley was an avowed atheist, who was influenced by the materialist arguments in

Holbach Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (; 8 December 1723 – 21 January 1789), was a French-German philosopher, encyclopedist, writer, and prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. He was born Paul Heinrich Dietrich in Edesheim, near Land ...

's '' Le Système de la nature''. His atheism was an important element of his political radicalism as he saw organised religion as inextricably linked to social oppression. The overt and implied atheism in many of his works raised a serious risk of prosecution for religious libel. His early pamphlet ''The Necessity of Atheism'' was withdrawn from sale soon after publication following a complaint from a priest. His poem ''Queen Mab'', which includes sustained attacks on the priesthood, Christianity and religion in general, was twice prosecuted by the

Society for the Suppression of Vice The Society for the Suppression of Vice, formerly the Proclamation Society Against Vice and Immorality, or simply Proclamation Society, was a 19th-century English society dedicated to promoting public morality. It was established in 1802, based on ...

in 1821. A number of his other works were edited before publication to reduce the risk of prosecution.

Free love

Shelley's advocacy of free love drew heavily on the work of Mary Wollstonecraft and the early work of William Godwin. In his notes to ''Queen Mab'', he wrote: "A system could not well have been devised more studiously hostile to human happiness than marriage." He argued that the children of unhappy marriages "are nursed in a systematic school of ill-humour, violence and falsehood". He believed that the ideal of chastity outside marriage was "a monkish and evangelical superstition" which led to the hypocrisy of prostitution and promiscuity.Holmes, Richard (1974), pp 204–8 Shelley believed that "sexual connection" should be free among those who loved each other and last only as long as their mutual love. Love should also be free and not subject to obedience, jealousy and fear. He denied that free love would lead to promiscuity and the disruption of stable human relationships, arguing that relationships based on love would generally be of long duration and marked by generosity and self-devotion. When Shelley's friend T. J. Hogg made an unwanted sexual advance to Shelley's first wife Harriet, Shelley forgave him of his "horrible error" and assured him that he was not jealous. It is very likely that Shelley encouraged Hogg and Shelley's second wife Mary to have a sexual relationship.

Vegetarianism

Shelley converted to a vegetable diet in early March 1812 and sustained it, with occasional lapses, for the remainder of his life. Shelley's vegetarianism was influenced by ancient authors such as Hesiod, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Ovid and Plutarch, but more directly by John Frank Newton, author of ''The Return to Nature, or, A Defence of the Vegetable Regimen'' (1811). Shelley wrote two essays on vegetarianism: ''

A Vindication of Natural Diet ''A Vindication of Natural Diet'' is an 1813 book by Percy Bysshe Shelley on vegetarianism and animal rights. It was first written as part of the notes to ''Queen Mab'', which was privately printed in 1813. Later in the same year the essay was s ...

'' (1813) and "On the Vegetable System of Diet" (written circa 1813–1815, but first published in 1929). William Owen Jones argues that Shelley's advocacy of vegetarianism was strikingly modern, emphasising its health benefits, the alleviation of animal suffering, the inefficient use of agricultural land involved in animal husbandry, and the economic inequality resulting from the commercialisation of animal food production. Shelley's life and works inspired the founding of the

Vegetarian Society The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is a British registered charity which was established on 30 September 1847 to promote vegetarianism. History In the 19th century a number of groups in Britain actively promoted and followed meat ...

in England (1847) and directly influenced the vegetarianism of George Bernard Shaw and perhaps Gandhi.

Reception and influence

Shelley's work was not widely read in his lifetime outside a small circle of friends, poets and critics. Most of his poetry, drama and fiction was published in editions of 250 copies which generally sold poorly. Only ''The Cenci'' went to an authorised second edition while Shelley was alive – in contrast, Byron's ''The Corsair'' (1814) sold out its first edition of 10,000 copies in one day. The initial reception of Shelley's work in mainstream periodicals (with the exception of the liberal ''Examiner'') was generally unfavourable. Reviewers often launched personal attacks on Shelley's private life and political, social and religious views, even when conceding that his poetry contained beautiful imagery and poetic expression. There was also criticism of Shelley's intelligibility and style, Hazlitt describing it as "a passionate dream, a straining after impossibilities, a record of fond conjectures, a confused embodying of vague abstraction". Shelley's poetry soon gained a wider audience in radical and reformist circles. ''Queen Mab'' became popular with Owenists and Chartists, and ''Revolt of Islam'' influenced poets sympathetic to the workers' movement such as Thomas Hood, Thomas Cooper and William Morris.Holmes, Richard (1974), pp 208–10, 402 However, Shelley's mainstream following did not develop until a generation after his death. Bieri argues that editions of Shelley's poems published in 1824 and 1839 were edited by Mary Shelley to highlight her late husband's lyrical gifts and downplay his radical ideas. Matthew Arnold famously described Shelley as a "beautiful and ineffectual angel". Shelley was a major influence on a number of important poets in the following decades, including Robert Browning, Swinburne, Hardy and Yeats.Bloom, Harold (2004), p 410 Shelley-like characters frequently appeared in nineteenth-century literature, such as Scythrop in Peacock's ''Nightmare Abbey'', Ladislaw in George Eliot's ''

Middlemarch ''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by the English author Mary Anne Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. It first appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midland town, ...

'' and Angel Clare in Hardy's '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles''. Twentieth-century critics such as Eliot, Leavis,

Allen Tate John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944. Life Early years Tate was born near Winchester, K ...

and Auden variously criticised Shelley's poetry for deficiencies in style, "repellent" ideas, and immaturity of intellect and sensibility.Howe and O'Neill (2013) pp 3–5 However, Shelley's critical reputation rose from the 1960s as a new generation of critics highlighted Shelley's debt to Spenser and

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

, his mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of sceptical, idealist and materialist ideas in his work. American literary critic

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". According to Donald H. Reiman, "Shelley belongs to the great tradition of Western writers that includes Dante, Shakespeare and Milton".

Legacy

Keats Shelly Museum, Spanish Steps, Rome

Shelley died leaving many of his works unfinished, unpublished or published in expurgated versions with multiple errors. There have been a number of recent projects aimed at establishing reliable editions of his manuscripts and works. Among the most notable of these are: * Reiman, D. H. (gen ed), ''The Bodleian Shelley Manuscripts'' (23 vols.), New York (1986–2002) * Reiman, D. H. (gen ed), ''The Manuscripts of the Younger Romantics: Shelley'' (9 vols., 1985–97) * Reiman, D. H. and Fraistat, N., (et al) ''The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley'' (3 vols.), 1999–2012, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press * Cameron, K. N. and Reiman, D. H. (eds), ''Shelley and his Circle 1773–1822'', Cambridge, Mass., 1961– (8 vols.) * Everest K, Matthews, G. et al (eds), ''The Poems of Shelley, 1804–1821'' (4 vols.), Longman, 1989–2014 * Murray, E. B. (ed), ''The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley'', Vol. 1, 1811–1818, Oxford University Press, 1995 Shelley's long-lost "Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things" (1811) was rediscovered in 2006 and subsequently made available online by the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

in Oxford. John Lauritsen and Charles E. Robinson have argued that Shelley's contribution to Mary Shelley's novel ''Frankenstein'' was extensive and that he should be considered a collaborator or co-author. Professor Charlotte Gordon and others have disputed this contention.

Fiona Sampson Fiona Ruth Sampson, is a British poet and writer. She is published in thirty-seven languages and has received a number of national and international awards for her writing. A former musician, Sampson has written on the links between music a ...

has said: "In recent years Percy's corrections, visible in the ''Frankenstein'' notebooks held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, have been seized on as evidence that he must have at least co-authored the novel. In fact, when I examined the notebooks myself, I realised that Percy did rather less than any line editor working in publishing today." The Keats–Shelley Memorial Association, founded in 1903, supports the Keats–Shelley House in Rome which is a museum and library dedicated to the Romantic writers with a strong connection with Italy. The association is also responsible for maintaining the grave of Percy Bysshe Shelley in the non-Catholic Cemetery at Testaccio. The association publishes the scholarly ''Keats–Shelley Review''. It also runs the annual Keats–Shelley and Young Romantics Writing Prizes and the Keats–Shelley Fellowship.

Selected works

Works are listed by estimated year of composition. The year of first publication is given when this is different. Source is Bieri, unless otherwise indicated.

Poetry, fiction and verse drama

* (1810) ''

'' * (1810) ''

'' (collaboration with Elizabeth Shelley) * (1810) ''

: Being Poems Found Amongst the Papers of That Noted Female Who Attempted the Life of the King in 1786'' * (1810) '' St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian'' (published 1811) * (1812) '' The Devil's Walk: A Ballad'' * (1813) '' Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem'' * (1815) ''

'' (Published 1816) * (1816) ''

'' * (1816) ''On Death'' * (1817) ''

'' (

text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

) * (1817) ''

; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century'' (published 1818) * (1818) ''

, A Poem, in Twelve Cantos'' * (1818) ''

'' (

) * (1818) '' Rosalind and Helen: A Modern Eclogue'' (published in 1819) * (1818) ''Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills, October 1818'' * (1819) ''

, A Tragedy, in Five Acts'' * (1819) ''

'' (

) * (1819) ''

'' (published 1832) * (1819) '' England in 1819'' * (1819) ''

: A Conversation'' * (1820) ''Peter Bell the Third'' (published in 1839) * (1820) '' Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts'' * (1820) ''

'' * (1820) '' The Cloud'' * (1820) ''The Sensitive Plant'' * (1820) ''

Oedipus Tyrannus ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts'' * (1820) ''

The Witch of Atlas ''The Witch of Atlas'' is a major poetic work of the English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley written in 1820 and published posthumously in 1824 in the ''Posthumous Poems'' collection. The poem was written in 78 ottava rima stanzas during the ...

'' (published in 1824) * (1821) ''

Adonais ''Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc.'' () is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley for John Keats in 1821, and widely regarded as one of Shelley's best and best-known works.Epipsychidion ''Epipsychidion'' is a major poetical work published in 1821 by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The work was subtitled: ''Verses addressed to the noble and unfortunate Lady Emilia V, now imprisoned in the convent of''. The title is Greek for "concerning ...

'' * (1822) '' Hellas, A Lyrical Drama'' * (1822) ''

'' (unfinished, published in 1824)

Short prose works

* "The Assassins, A Fragment of a Romance" (1814) * "The Coliseum, A Fragment" (1817) * "The Elysian Fields: A Lucianic Fragment" (1818) * "Una Favola (A Fable)" (1819, originally in Italian)

Essays

(with T. J. Hogg) (1811) *

Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things "Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things" is an essay by Percy Bysshe Shelley published in 1811. The work was lost since its first appearance until a copy was found in 2006 and made available by the Bodleian Library in 2015. The anti-war an ...

(1811) * An Address, to the Irish People (1812) * Declaration of Rights (1812) *

A Letter to Lord Ellenborough "A Letter to Lord Ellenborough" is a pamphlet written in 1812 by Percy Bysshe Shelley in defence of Daniel Isaac Eaton.Sandy, Mark. "A Letter to Lord Ellenborough". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 March 2002accessed 24 December 2009./ref> Printed ...

(1812) *

(1813) * A Refutation of Deism (1814) * Speculations on Metaphysics (1814) * On the Vegetable System of Diet (1814–1815; published 1929) * On a Future State (1815) * On The Punishment of Death (1815) * Speculations on Morals (1817) * On Christianity (incomplete, 1817; published 1859) * On Love (1818) * On the Literature, the Arts and the Manners of the Athenians (1818) * On ''The Symposium'', or Preface to ''The Banquet'' Of Plato (1818) * On ''Frankenstein'' (1818; published in 1832) * On Life (1819) * A Philosophical View of Reform (1819–20, first published 1920) * A Defence of Poetry (1821, published 1840)

Chapbooks

* '' Wolfstein; or, The Mysterious Bandit'' (1822) * ''Wolfstein, The Murderer; or, The Secrets of a Robber's Cave'' (1830)

Translations

* The Banquet (or The Symposium) of Plato (1818) (first published in unbowdlerised form 1931) * Ion of Plato (1821)

Collaborations with Mary Shelley

* (1817) ''

History of a Six Weeks' Tour ''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'' is a travel narrative by the English Romantic authors Mar ...

'' * (1820) '' Proserpine'' * (1820) ''

Midas Midas (; grc-gre, Μίδας) was the name of a king in Phrygia with whom several myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ...

''.

References

Notes Bibliography *

Edmund Blunden Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...

, ''Shelley: A Life Story'',

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...

, 1947. *

, ''Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Biography'',

Johns Hopkins University Press The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

, 2008, . * Altick, Richard D., ''The English Common Reader''. Ohio:

Ohio State University Press The Ohio State University Press is the university press of Ohio State University. It was founded in 1957. The OSU Press has published approximately 1700 books since its inception. The current director is Tony Sanfilippo, who had previously work ...

, 1998. * Cameron, Kenneth Neill. ''The Young Shelley: Genesis of a Radical''. First Collier Books ed. New York: Collier Books, 1962, cop. 1950. * Edward Chaney. 'Egypt in England and America: The Cultural Memorials of Religion, Royalty and Religion', ''Sites of Exchange: European Crossroads and Faultlines'', eds. M. Ascari and A. Corrado. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2006, pp. 39–69. * Holmes, Richard. ''Shelley: The Pursuit.'' New York: E.P. Dutton, 1975. * Meaker, M.J. ''Sudden Endings, 12 Profiles in Depth of Famous Suicides'', Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1964 pp. 67–93: "The Deserted Wife: Harriet Westbrook Shelley". * Maurois, André, ''Ariel ou la vie de Shelley'', Paris, Bernard Grasset, 1923 * St Clair, William. ''The Godwins and the Shelleys: A Biography of a Family''. London:

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

, 1990. * St Clair, William. ''The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period.'' Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 2005. * Hay, Daisy. ''Young Romantics: the Shelleys,

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

, and Other Tangled Lives'',

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

, 2010. * Everest K, Matthews, G. et al (eds), The Poems of Shelley, 1804–1821, (4 vols), Longman, 1989–2014 * Murray, E, B. (ed), The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol 1, 1811–1818, Oxford University Press, 1995 * Reiman, D. H. and Fraistat, N., (et al) "The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley," (3 vols) 1999–2012, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press * Shelley, Mary, with Percy Shelley. ''The Original Frankenstein''. Edited with an Introduction by Charles E. Robinson. NY: Random House Vintage Classics, 2008.

External links

* * * *
Percy Bysshe Shelley Resources

Percy Bysshe Shelley: Profile and Poems at Poets.org

Selected Poems of Shelley

A Guide to the Percy Bysshe Shelley Manuscript Material in the Pforzheimer Collection
* A talk on Shelley's politics (MP3) by Paul Foot
part 1

part 2

Plato's Ion, the Shelley translation

The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley
* * *
Online exhibition of Shelley's notebooks, objects, letters and drafts
alongside artefacts of

and

Percy Bysshe Shelley
at the British Library *Walter Edwin Peck papers (MS 390). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Librar

Fragment of an Address to the Jews
– General Library, University of Tokyo {{DEFAULTSORT:Shelley, Percy Bysshe Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792 births 1822 deaths 19th-century atheists 18th-century English people 19th-century British novelists 19th-century British dramatists and playwrights 19th-century British translators 19th-century English non-fiction writers 19th-century English poets 19th-century essayists 19th-century male writers Accidental deaths in Italy Alumni of University College, Oxford Anti-monarchists British atheism activists British male dramatists and playwrights British male poets British radicals British republicans British vegetarianism activists Boating accident deaths Burials in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome Critics of Christianity Critics of deism English atheists English essayists English expatriates in Italy English humanists English male novelists English religious sceptics English translators Epic poets Godwin family Heirs apparent who never acceded Left-wing politics in the United Kingdom Liberalism in the United Kingdom Male essayists Nonviolence advocates People educated at Eton College People from Horsham Persecution of atheists Romantic poets Secular humanists Shelley family Sonneteers Writers from Sussex Writers of Gothic fiction

Life

Early life and education

Marriage to Harriet Westbrook

Elopement with Mary Godwin

Byron

Marriage to Mary Godwin

Italy

Death

Shelley's remains

Family history

Ancestry

Political, religious and ethical views

Politics

Nonviolence

Religion

Free love

Vegetarianism

Reception and influence

Legacy

Selected works

Poetry, fiction and verse drama

Short prose works

Essays

Chapbooks

Translations

Collaborations with Mary Shelley

See also

References

External links