When did Mary Shelley write Frankenstein, who was her poet husband Percy and what was the novelist’s cause of death?

MARY Shelley’s horror novel Frankenstein has delighted and terrified generations as it explores what really makes someone human.

As the book turns 202 we bring you all you need to know about the author and her hedonistic husband….

When did Mary Shelley write Frankenstein?

In the summer of 1816 Marry Shelley travelled to Geneva, Switzerland, with her future husband Percy Shelley, the infamous Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Claremont.

It was during their holiday at the villa close to Lake Geneva that Mary had her waking dream that inspired Frankenstein.

The author said the wet summer with constant showers often left the party trapped in the house, where they amused themselves with German ghost stories and shared their work.

One night, when she had retired to bed, she claims she had a waking dream in which she saw the creature which was to become Frankenstein.

Recounting the memory she wrote: “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.

“I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.

“Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.”

Mary initially intended to turn the dream into a short story, but at Percy’s encouragement she expanded it into the novel we know as Frankenstein.

Who was her poet husband Percy Shelley?

Percy Shelley is one of the second generation of Romantic poets that were known for their hedonistic lifestyle.

He was born in 1792 to Sir Timothy Shelley and Elizabeth Pilfol and had four younger sisters.

He was educated at Eton where he took a keen interest in science before attended Oxford University.

Whilst at the university he published a pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism, which was scandalous for the period, and was kicked out of the university along with his co-author James Hogg.

At 19-years-old he eloped with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook which caused his furious father to revoke his allowance.

As his marriage to Harriet collapsed he formed an attachment with Mary Shelley and the two started an affair, with her becoming pregnant with their child before they married.

After his first wife committed suicide, he and Mary married and moved to Buckinghamshire, before moving to Italy where Shelley eventually drowned in suspicious circumstances.

Despite producing a large volume of work during his lifetime he didn’t become popular till after his death.

His most famous poems are considered to be Ozymandius, Ode to the West Wind, The Masque of Anarchy and To A Skylark and he is considered to be one of the most influential Romantic poets of the period.

How did Percy Shelley die?

A month before his 30th birthday Shelley drowned in the Gulf of Spezia, Italy, during a sudden storm.

He was returning from seeing Leigh Hunt who had just arrived in the country.

However, many claim that Shelley’s death was not an accident and claim that he was depressed and wanted to die.

After his death widowed Mary Shelley is claimed to have kept a piece of his heart, despite the rest of his remains being cremated on the beach in the bay where his body was washed up.

What was Mary Shelley’s cause of death?

In her final years Mary Shelley lived with her son, Percy Florence, and his wife, Jane Gibson St John, at Field Palace, Sussex, which was her late husband’s ancestral home.

She was plagued by illness, often experience headaches and paralysis which left her unable to read of write at times.

Mary died aged 53 from a suspected brain tumour, according to her physician, and was buried at St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth.

On the first anniversary of her death, the family opened her desk box to find a silk parcel containing some of Percy Shelley’s ashes and the remains of his heart.