Literary Birthday – 30 August – Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was born 30 August 1797, and died 1 February 1851.

Mary Shelley Quotes

1. It was beneath the trees of the grounds belonging to our house, or on the bleak sides of the woodless mountains near, that my true compositions, the airy flights of my imagination, were born and fostered. (Britannica)
2. And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper. I have an affection for it, for it was the offspring of happy days, when death and grief were but words, which found no true echo in my heart. Its several pages speak of many a walk, many a drive, and many a conversation, when I was not alone. (Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein)
3. As a child I scribbled; and my favourite pastime, during the hours given me for recreation, was to “write stories.” Still I had a dearer pleasure than this, which was the formation of castles in the air—the indulging in waking dreams—the following up trains of thought, which had for their subject the formation of a succession of imaginary incidents. My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings. (Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein)
4. I busied myself to think of a story, — a story to rival those which had excited us to this task. One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart. If I did not accomplish these things, my ghost story would be unworthy of its name. (Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein)
5. We never do what we wish when we wish it, and when we desire a thing earnestly, and it does arrive, that or we are changed, so that we slide from the summit of our wishes and find ourselves where we were. (Selected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Frankenstein Quotes

1. Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
2. If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!
3. How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow.
4. The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.
5. Every thing must have a beginning … and that beginning must be linked to something that went before.
6. What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.
7. It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English speculative fiction novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer. When she was 11-years-old, she published a children’s tale, The Discoveries of John Bull in a Trip to Paris, through her father’s publishing house. She wrote Valperga, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, Lodore, Falkner, and The Last Man, but she is best remembered for her Gothic novel, Frankenstein. The novel has continued to influenced popular culture and there have been many adaptations of the book. Shelley was the daughter of philosopher, William Godwin and feminist writer, Mary Wollstonecraft. She was married to the Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Posthumous publications of her casual writings include The Journals of Mary Shelley, 1814–1844, and Selected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Image source: Reginald Easton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shelley_Easton.tif

by Amanda Patterson

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