''Valperga: or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca'' is an 1823

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...

by the Romantic novelist

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

, set amongst the wars of the

Guelphs and Ghibellines The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, r ...

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

, 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 Castruccio Castracani degli Antelminelli (; 1281 – 3 September 1328) was an Italian ''condottiero'' and duke of Lucca. Biography Castruccio was born in Lucca, a member of the noble family of Antelminelli, of the Ghibelline party. In 1300 he ...

, a real historical figure who became the lord of

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one ...

and conquered

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

. 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 perspective of medieval history, Mary Shelley addresses a live issue in post-

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

ic Europe: the right of autonomously governed communities to political liberty in the face of imperialistic encroachment. She opposes Castruccio's compulsive greed for conquest with an alternative, Euthanasia's government of Valperga on the principles of

reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...

and

sensibility Sensibility refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another. This concept emerged in eighteenth-century Britain, and was closely associated with studies of sense perception as the means thr ...

. In the view of ''Valperga''s recent editor Stuart Curran, the work represents a feminist version of

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

's new and often masculine genre, historical novel. Modern critics draw attention to Mary Shelley's

republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. ...

, and her interest in questions of political power and moral principles.

Reception

''Valperga'' earned largely positive reviews, but it was judged as a love story, its ideological and political framework overlooked. It was not, however, republished in Mary Shelley's lifetime, and she later remarked that it never had "fair play". Recently, ''Valperga'' has been praised for its sophisticated narrative form and its authenticity of detail.Curran, 104-06. Mary Shelley, as Percy Shelley confirmed, "visited the scenery which she described in person", and consulted many books about Castruccio and his times. In 1824, a reviewer for '' Knight's Quarterly Review'' compared ''Valperga'' and ''Frankenstein'' and alleged that each novel was written by a different author:

Notes

Bibliography

* Bennett, Betty T. ''Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: An Introduction''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. . * Bennett, Betty T. "Machiavelli's and Mary Shelley's Castruccio: Biography as Metaphor''. ''Romanticism'' 3.2 (1997): 139–51. * Bennett, Betty T. "The Political Philosophy of Mary Shelley's Historical novels: ''Valperga'' and ''Perkin Warbeck''". ''The Evidence of the Imagination''. Eds. Donald H. Reiman, Michael C. Jaye, and Betty T. Bennett. New York: New York University Press, 1978. *Blumberg, Jane. ''Mary Shelley's Early Novels: "This Child of Imagination and Misery"''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993. . * Brewer, William D. "Mary Shelley's ''Valperga'': The Triumph of Euthanasia's Mind". ''European Romantic Review'' 5.2 (1995): 133–48. * Carson, James P. "'A Sigh of Many Hearts': History, Humanity, and Popular Culture in ''Valperga''". ''Iconoclastic Departures: Mary Shelley after "Frankenstein": Essays in Honor of the Bicentenary of Mary Shelley's Birth''. Eds. Syndy M. Conger, Frederick S. Frank, and Gregory O'Dea. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997. * Clemit, Pamela. ''The Godwinian Novel: The Rational Fictions of Godwin, Brockden Brown, Mary Shelley''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. . * Curran, Stuart. "''Valperga''". ''The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley''. Ed. Esther Schor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. . * Lew, Joseph W. "God's Sister: History and Ideology in ''Valperga''". ''The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond'' Frankenstein. Eds. Audrey A. Fisch, Anne K. Mellor, and Esther H. Schor. New York: New York University Press, 1993. . * O'Sullivan, Barbara Jane. "Beatrice in ''Valperga'': A New Cassandra". ''The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond'' Frankenstein. Eds. Audrey A. Fisch, Anne K. Mellor, and Esther H. Schor. New York: New York University Press, 1993. . * Lokke, Kari. "'Children of Liberty': Idealist Historiography in Staël, Shelley, and Sand". ''PMLA'' 118.3 (2003): 502–20. * Lokke, Kari. "Sibylline Leaves: Mary Shelley's ''Valperga'' and the Legacy of ''Corinne''". ''Cultural Interactions in the Romantic Age: Critical Essays in Comparative Literature''. Ed. Gregory Maertz, Gregory. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998. * Poovey, Mary. ''The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and Jane Austen''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. . * Rajan, Rilottama. "Between Romance and History: Possibility and Contingency in Godwin, Leibniz, and Mary Shelley's ''Valperga''". ''Mary Shelley in Her Times''. Eds. Betty T. Bennett and Stuart Curran. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. * Rossington, Michael. "Future Uncertain: The Republican Tradition and its Destiny in ''Valperga''". ''Mary Shelley in Her Times''. Eds. Betty T. Bennett and Stuart Curran. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. * Schiefelbein, Michael. "'The Lessons of True Religion': Mary Shelley's Tribute to Catholicism in ''Valperga''". ''Religion and Literature'' 30.2 (1998): 59–79. * Shelley, Mary. ''Valperga; or, The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca''. Ed. Michael Rossington. Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks, 2000. . * Shelley, Mary. ''Valperga; or, The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca''. ''The Novels and Selected Works of Mary Shelley''. Vol. 3. Ed. Nora Crook. London: Pickering and Chatto, 1996. * Sunstein, Emily W. ''Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality''. 1989. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. . * Wake, Ann M. Frank. "Women in the Active Voice: Recovering Female History in Mary Shelley's ''Valperga'' and ''Perkin Warbeck''". ''Iconoclastic Departures: Mary Shelley after "Frankenstein": Essays in Honor of the Bicentenary of Mary Shelley's Birth''. Eds. Syndy M. Conger, Frederick S. Frank, and Gregory O'Dea. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997. * White, Daniel E. "'The God Undeified': Mary Shelley's ''Valperga'', Italy, and the Aesthetic of Desire". ''Romanticism on the Net'' 6 (Mary 1997). * Williams, John. "Translating Mary Shelly's ''Valperga'' into English: Historical Romance, Biography or Gothic Fiction?". ''European Gothic: A Spirited Exchange, 1760–1960''. Ed. Avril Horner. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002. {{DEFAULTSORT:Valperga (Novel) 1823 British novels Historical novels Novels by Mary Shelley Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines