Almanac of Story Tellers: Mary Shelley

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Aug. 30th

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    It is the 242st day of the year, leaving 123 days remaining in 2022. 

   

    On this date in 1797, the British author Mary Shelley was born.

    She told her stories in the Gothic and Godwinian styles, employing elements of  autobiography and self-examination to explore people's roles in society. She also wrote with a clear knowledge of Walter Scott's contemporary creation of the historic  fiction genre, and some credit her with being among the first science fiction novelists.

    Indeed, her best known  work, Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, is sometimes considered to be the first science fiction novel. It explores the concept of artificially creating a life.

    Some scholars have seen evidence of autobiography and feminism in the novel, noting that Shelley had a miscarriage in the year before writing the book, and may have been pondering ways to replace the child.

    One of Shelley's last novels also is considered to be the creation of yet another genre -- the dystopian novel The Last Man envisioned a future in which a plague sweeps the world and almost wipes out mankind. She set that novel in the year 2070.

    Other works include the novels Lodore, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, and Valperga; a travel book, History of a Six Weeks' Tour; along with more than two dozen short stories, several children's books, and five volumes of biographies published in 1835-1839. 

    Shelley gained some attention during her lifetime for her fiction. But after her death, her works were largely forgotten -- even Frankenstein was not so much read as known, and seen in cinematic adaptations.

    Instead, much of the effort -- of Shelley, during her life, and the rest of the literary world, in the years since -- was spent promoting the works of her husband. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley died at 29, six years after he married the then-19-year-old Mary Godwin.

    But the in latter part of the 20th Century, more scholars have turned an eye on Shelley, and her reputation has improved. 

    She died in 1851.