"Let's each write a ghost story."

                                

  This casually tossed out challenge lead to the creation of the most iconic, enduring, groundbreaking horror story of all times, 

                                 Frankenstein. 

   In the summer of 1816, Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy Shelly, and Mary's half-sister Claire, took a trip to Geneva to visit Claire's lover, Lord Byron. 

            

The weather was beastly, the world was locked in a long, cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815.  

    There at Byron's Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, in Switzerland's Alps, the friends sat around discussing Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment, atheisms, the political times, and the unrest in France. Even the scientific theories of galvanism and reanimation. 

    One evening (this had to be the original dark and stormy night) Byron and the visitors were again forced to stay indoors. To help pass the time, they read stories from Fantasmagoriana a French anthology of German ghost stories.

                           

  Byron suggested that he, Mary, Percy, and Byron's physician, John Polidori (credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction) each write a ghost story. Mary's attempt, eventually became the famous Frankenstein. 

                        

 Mary was very well educated. Her father was a fairly well known philosopher and author. Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, a feminist and women's rights advocate, and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 

 Although her mother died shortly after young Mary's birth, while growing up, Mary was surrounded by her father's friends as they enjoyed many political, scientific, and philosophical discussions.  

 The subtitle of Frankenstein was The Modern Prometheus, and volumes of information have been penned regarding the influences and underlying theme surrounding the basic story. Even parallels between Victor Frankenstein and Mary's husband, Percy Shelley have been explored. 

 Published on 1 January 1818 by a small London publishing house, the book was issued anonymously, with a preface written for Mary by Percy Bysshe Shelley and with a dedication to philosopher William Godwin, her father. 

The second English edition was published in August 1823 in two volumes. October 31,1831 saw the first "popular" edition in one volume. This one was heavily revised by Mary Shelley, partially to make the story less radical. It included a lengthy new preface by the author, presenting a somewhat embellished version of the genesis of the story.

                         
 But Mary's life seemed destined to be filled with loss and sadness. As noted, she lost her mother in infancy, she married Percy only three weeks after his first wife died of suicide, she lost two children early in life, and then Fanny, another half-sister, also died by suicide. But was anything as devastating as her final loss, that of her beloved Percy? 

                                 Photo by Paolo Razzauti

  There are rumors, his drowning in the bay of Lerici, Italy was due to piracy? Percy Shelley’s boat, the Don Juan, was one of the largest ship in the region. In town, he was known as an Englishman of wealth. There truly were pirates about, and they could be violent in their attempts at stealing. 

                    Statue by Henry Weekes, 1854 Christchurch Priory, England

   After several weeks, Percy's body washed ashore, identified by his friend Edward Trelawny from the clothing and a copy of Keats's Lamia in a jacket pocket. The body was cremated nearby. When the ashes cooled, Trelawny retrieved a piece of what remained and swore it was Percy's heart which he gave to Mary.  

It is doubtful it was really Percy's heart, but the important thing is that Mary thought it was. She kept it with her throughout her life. After she died of brain cancer at age fifty-three, her only living child found the relic in her desk.

   Trelawny also collected ashes and supposed fragments of Shelley’s skull, now residing at the British Library. 

  How tragic and sad Percy and Mary's great love ended so abruptly when they were young and vibrant. Yet Percy accomplished much in his twenty-nine years, and she promoted his works and remembered him always. 

My Stories: 

Western Romance: Break Heart Canyon * Undercover Outlaw * Cowboys, Cattle and Cutthroats * A Cowboy’s Fate*Special Delivery. 

Contemporary Romantic Thriller: Fatal Recall

Medieval Romance: The Dragon and The Rose * Iron Heart        *Promise Me Christmas. 

Victorian Romance: Lady Gallant * Victorian Dream 

Romantasy: The Fae Warriors Trilogy: Solace * Bliss * Portence 

Blog www.ginirifkin.blogspot.com

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Anna Mazzola
https://annamazzola.com/did-mary-shelley-keep-percys-heart/#:~:text=How%20could%20it%20have%20survived,calcified%20due%20to%20earlier%20tuberculosis.