This is perhaps the best biography I have ever read. It's almost novelesque in the brilliancy of its storytelling. The book is about the complex web of relationships between Mary Shelley, her not yet husband, Percy Bysche Shelley, and George Gordon Lord Byron. Threaded into this are Mary's step-sister (the mother of one of Byron's children) and a dozen or so other literary and philosophical figures of the time. The narrative, somehow without loosing focus or momentum, takes us back into the lives of the poets' parentage, including a close up look at Mary's parents, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, who were important figures in their time. In doing so, we are allowed an opportunity to understand just how their aims at a marriage free society and equal rights for women affected Mary as a child and molded her into the woman who would run away with a poet and write a horror classic. In fact the Frankenstein was the result of a dare issued by Byron himself. After a night of ghost stories and stormy weather, in which Percy Shelley was reduced to screams and tears and fist of terror (Mary's breasts were staring at him), Byron proposed that they each, along with his personal physician (and what else?) construct a horror story of their own. Byron started, but did not finish. As did Percy. Polidori began the first tentative passages that would one day become "The Vampyre" the model by which Bram Stoker and Stephanie Myer would one day fashion their vampires. The young and apparently inconsequential Mary had nothing, however, until a dream, several days later inspired the birth of Frankenstein's monster. Hers was the only story to be finished as a direct result of the dare, and, as we know, she became a formidable literary figure in her own right. As for "The Vampyre", it was published many years later, and only as a result of Polidori's bitterness toward Byron, in which the great poet is resembled in the key figure.This book is so full of language and atmosphere, it really deserves a star place on my shelf. Though I am not a student of the Romantics or of the Regency era, it is, nevertheless, a fascinating peek into the lives of a few kindred souls who, for a time, steered that ship. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the era or the Romantic movement, or in the poets and authors themselves, or...well...anyone really who likes to hear a good story well told. And it's all true. You couldn't make up fiction this extraordinary.
Show lessThis is perhaps the best biography I have ever read. It's almost novelesque in the brilliancy of its storytelling. The book is about the complex web of relationships between Mary Shelley, her not yet husband, Percy Bysche Shelley, and George Gordon Lord Byron. Threaded into this are Mary's step-sister (the mother of one of Byron's children) and a dozen or so other literary and philosophical figures of the time. The narrative, somehow without loosing focus or momentum, takes us back into the lives of the poets' parentage, including a close up look at Mary's parents, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, who were important figures in their time. In doing so, we are allowed an opportunity to understand just how their aims at a marriage free society and equal rights for women affected Mary as a child and molded her into the woman who would run away with a poet and write a horror classic. In fact the Frankenstein was the result of a dare issued by Byron himself. After a night of ghost stories and stormy weather, in which Percy Shelley was reduced to screams and tears and fist of terror (Mary's breasts were staring at him), Byron proposed that they each, along with his personal physician (and what else?) construct a horror story of their own. Byron started, but did not finish. As did Percy. Polidori began the first tentative passages that would one day become "The Vampyre" the model by which Bram Stoker and Stephanie Myer would one day fashion their vampires. The young and apparently inconsequential Mary had nothing, however, until a dream, several days later inspired the birth of Frankenstein's monster. Hers was the only story to be finished as a direct result of the dare, and, as we know, she became a formidable literary figure in her own right. As for "The Vampyre", it was published many years later, and only as a result of Polidori's bitterness toward Byron, in which the great poet is resembled in the key figure.This book is so full of language and atmosphere, it really deserves a star place on my shelf. Though I am not a student of the Romantics or of the Regency era, it is, nevertheless, a fascinating peek into the lives of a few kindred souls who, for a time, steered that ship. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the era or the Romantic movement, or in the poets and authors themselves, or...well...anyone really who likes to hear a good story well told. And it's all true. You couldn't make up fiction this extraordinary.
Read more...
This is the story of the famous "ghost story contest" initiated by Lord Byron in the summer of 1816, which resulted in the writing of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. More broadly, it's the story of the people who were gathered together that fateful summer; Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (Shelley's lover, who would later become Mary Shelley); Mary's step-sister Claire Claremont, who was Byron's lover and had probably also been Percy Shelley's lover; Dr. John Polidori, who would write his own novel as a result of his involvement in the group --The Vampire, which introduced elements that influenced Stoker's Dracula). It also attempts to analyze how the life experiences of the group influenced their writings.I'm not sure how to rate or review this. My knowledge of the subjects of this book is limited; however, I know just from what I've read on threads here (regarding a Percy Shelley biography) that some of the conclusions the Hooblers have drawn about Mary Shelley's life contradict what others have published. The Hooblers acknowledge that the surviving record allows for various interpretations -- many letters and pages from the journals of Mary Shelley and others have not survived.I'm not sure how expert their interpretations are of the literature, especially the poetry -- I am not an expert on poetry.However, it was a pretty good read. These are fascinating people living in a fascinating time, and I thought that the book gave a resonable overview of their lives and influences upon one another.
Show lessThis is the story of the famous "ghost story contest" initiated by Lord Byron in the summer of 1816, which resulted in the writing of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. More broadly, it's the story of the people who were gathered together that fateful summer; Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (Shelley's lover, who would later become Mary Shelley); Mary's step-sister Claire Claremont, who was Byron's lover and had probably also been Percy Shelley's lover; Dr. John Polidori, who would write his own novel as a result of his involvement in the group --The Vampire, which introduced elements that influenced Stoker's Dracula). It also attempts to analyze how the life experiences of the group influenced their writings.I'm not sure how to rate or review this. My knowledge of the subjects of this book is limited; however, I know just from what I've read on threads here (regarding a Percy Shelley biography) that some of the conclusions the Hooblers have drawn about Mary Shelley's life contradict what others have published. The Hooblers acknowledge that the surviving record allows for various interpretations -- many letters and pages from the journals of Mary Shelley and others have not survived.I'm not sure how expert their interpretations are of the literature, especially the poetry -- I am not an expert on poetry.However, it was a pretty good read. These are fascinating people living in a fascinating time, and I thought that the book gave a resonable overview of their lives and influences upon one another.
Read more...
It's axiomatic that genius is often characterized by questionable social skills and/or behavior, and it would appear to hold true in the case of Mary Shelley's circle of family and friends. The Hooblers present unflinching portraits of Mary, her husband Percy, father William Godwin and friend, Lord Byron among others. Mary receives the kindest treatment next to her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft (Author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) Both Marys suffer at the hands of the men in their lives, and Mary the younger spends a good deal of time trying to make some sense of that suffering. But the men... they are true pieces of work. They are all selfish, self-centered, arrogant and cruel even in their affections. They seem to have little use for the women in their lives, less for the children they father promiscuously. They live for their "art" and the pleasures it buys them. And in spite of that art, they are not particularly attractive when viewed through this lens. Of the three most prominent women in the book, Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, is the least talented and the most unpalatable thanks mostly to her single-minded pursuit of Lord Byron and her possible romantic involvement with her sister's husband, Percy Shelley.I picked up the book originally because I have long been fascinated by the events of that "haunted summer" of 1816 when Byron challenged his friends to write a ghost story. The Hooblers present those events as a kind of centerpiece to the larger story of Mary Shelley, beginning with a short but careful examination of her mother's life with an eye to how it affected Mary's life and writing. One is tempted to wonder how Wollstonecraft might have viewed her daughter's elopement with Percy Shelley, and her writing career. As it is her death, not even a fortnight after the birth of her younger daughter, was the first of many losses that informed Mary Shelley's work. And in less than a quarter century, the younger Mary would lose three children, a half-sister, her husband and the love -- such as it was -- of her own father because of her relationship with Shelley. She would be haunted by the suicide of Shelley's first wife, Harriet, and her husband's chronic infidelities, possibly even with Claire. It's no wonder that she produced one of the most memorable horror novels ever penned.
Show lessIt's axiomatic that genius is often characterized by questionable social skills and/or behavior, and it would appear to hold true in the case of Mary Shelley's circle of family and friends. The Hooblers present unflinching portraits of Mary, her husband Percy, father William Godwin and friend, Lord Byron among others. Mary receives the kindest treatment next to her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft (Author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) Both Marys suffer at the hands of the men in their lives, and Mary the younger spends a good deal of time trying to make some sense of that suffering. But the men... they are true pieces of work. They are all selfish, self-centered, arrogant and cruel even in their affections. They seem to have little use for the women in their lives, less for the children they father promiscuously. They live for their "art" and the pleasures it buys them. And in spite of that art, they are not particularly attractive when viewed through this lens. Of the three most prominent women in the book, Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, is the least talented and the most unpalatable thanks mostly to her single-minded pursuit of Lord Byron and her possible romantic involvement with her sister's husband, Percy Shelley.I picked up the book originally because I have long been fascinated by the events of that "haunted summer" of 1816 when Byron challenged his friends to write a ghost story. The Hooblers present those events as a kind of centerpiece to the larger story of Mary Shelley, beginning with a short but careful examination of her mother's life with an eye to how it affected Mary's life and writing. One is tempted to wonder how Wollstonecraft might have viewed her daughter's elopement with Percy Shelley, and her writing career. As it is her death, not even a fortnight after the birth of her younger daughter, was the first of many losses that informed Mary Shelley's work. And in less than a quarter century, the younger Mary would lose three children, a half-sister, her husband and the love -- such as it was -- of her own father because of her relationship with Shelley. She would be haunted by the suicide of Shelley's first wife, Harriet, and her husband's chronic infidelities, possibly even with Claire. It's no wonder that she produced one of the most memorable horror novels ever penned.
Read more...
