A review by bookbelle5_17
In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Fiona Sampson

informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Review of In Search of Mary Shelley

By: Fiona Sampson

My knowledge of Mary Shelley was limited to knowing her as the author of Frankenstein, but it improved with Booktube and watching Booktuber, Jennifer Brooks’ channel.  This biography covers Mary’s childhood to her widowhood after her husband Percy Shelley’s death.  She was her father William Godwin’s favorite and he imagined she would be her mother’s daughter.  Her father did remarry, but Mary’s stepmother, Mary-Jane, put her own daughter first, which is to be expected.  When Mary ran off with Percy, her father disowned her not approving of the elopement, but Mary blamed her stepmother for his reaction.  She brings Claire her stepsister to Italy with her and her stepmother goes after them for own daughter’s sake.  This biography made me hate Percy and resent how he treated Mary, as well as his previous wife, Harriet.  Of course, Mary isn’t innocent, because she took another woman’s husband, though she was led to believe Harriet wasn’t great.  Ironically, the last lover we’re read about that Percy had been with before his death spread rumors that Mary was a bad wife. She suffers several miscarriages and had only one surviving child, Percy Florence, but after Percy dies her father in-law tries to take her son from her.  Despite her complicated marriage with Percy and being abandoned by their circle of friends, Mary remained strong, and she proved to be a great writer as well as outliving Percy.  This is a great deep dive into who Mary Shelley is as a person and what she did for literature.