Description
How did Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, two of the most iconic and celebrated authors of the Romantic Period, contribute to each other’s achievements? This book is the first to dedicate a full-length study to exploring the nature of the Shelleys’ literary relationship in depth. It offers new insights into the works of these talented individuals who were bound together by their personal romance and shared commitment to a literary career. Most innovatively, the book describes how Mary Shelley contributed significantly to Percy Shelley’s writing, whilst also discussing Percy’s involvement in her work.
A reappraisal of original manuscripts reveals the Shelleys as a remarkable literary couple, participants in a reciprocal and creative exchange. Hand-written evidence shows Mary adding to Percy’s work in draft and vice-versa. A focus on the Shelleys’ texts – set in the context of their lives and especially their travels – is used to explain how they enabled one another to accomplish a quality of work which they might never have achieved alone. Illustrated with reproductions from their notebooks and drafts, this volume brings Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley to the forefront of emerging scholarship on collaborative literary relationships and the social nature of creativity.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Author’s Note
List of Images
The Shelleys: A Brief Chronology
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1, 1814-18: London to Europe – collaborative beginnings
Chapter 2, 1818-22: Literary exchanges in Italy
Chapter 3, 1818-22: The Italian period and shared composition
Chapter 4, 1822 and beyond: Approaching posthumous editing as collaboration
Chapter 5, 1822 and beyond: Intertextual connections and Mary Shelley’s later novels
Afterword: ‘We have now lived five years together’
Abbreviations
Works Cited
