The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 1

Marshall, Julian, Mrs., 1843-1922Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
605K words
Chapters
61

Tags

English Originals Literary Figures Fate and FortuneLove EntanglementsLiterary GiantsHumanistic CareComplex HumanityPsychological InsightRomanticism19th CenturyFemale Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume 1 (of 2) by MarshallAuthor: Marshall, Julian, Mrs., 1843-1922,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 8, 2011

Editor's review

This is the first of two volumes of a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, presenting her early life and literary-circle correspondence chiefly through letters. Sources describe it as a public-domain e-book in English literature, released by Project Gutenberg. Its value lies in the firsthand nature of the epistolary material: readers encounter the original words of the subject, her family, and friends directly, experiencing the rhythm and emotional expression of nineteenth-century English literary family life rather than secondhand paraphrase. For those studying the life of the author of Frankenstein or the social networks of Romantic literature, it offers citable textual material. Read it as a source collection rather than a smooth narrative biography: the epistolary structure is loose, and names and events require notes to sort out. It suits slow reading, note-taking, and organizing relationships along a timeline. The electronic edition is free and easy to obtain, searchable by keyword, and useful as supporting material for论文写作 or reading groups.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Begin with the prefatory note and table of contents, list the main figures, then enter the letters.
  2. Read in chronological order, noting relationships and event years as you go for easy cross-reference.
  3. Skip unfamiliar names and places at first, then look up background information after finishing a chapter.
  4. Read continuously with Volume 2 to avoid comprehension difficulties caused by the split.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61

FAQ

Is this a complete biography or a compilation of materials? It is a collection of biographical materials centered on letters, the first of two volumes, covering the subject's early years and related correspondence. The narrative is linked by letters and is less coherent than a modern biography, better suited to reading as documentary material than as a story to be read straight through.
Do I need prior knowledge of Mary Shelley to read this? Basic familiarity helps but is not required. It is advisable to know first that she was the author of Frankenstein and the wife of the poet Shelley, which makes the relationships easier to follow in the letters. If she is entirely unfamiliar, read a brief biographical introduction before starting this book.
Is the electronic edition suitable for academic citation? It can serve as a reading and search source for public-domain documents, but formal citation should verify page numbers and editorial notes against authoritative editions. This is an electronic text released by Project Gutenberg, convenient for keyword searches and locating letters; citations should note the electronic source and access information.
In what order should the two volumes be read? It is recommended to begin with Volume 1 and read chronologically, then proceed to Volume 2, so as to maintain continuity of people and events. If researching a specific period, first consult the table of contents to locate the relevant letters, then trace back to background on figures in the preceding volume, avoiding taking passages out of context.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Marshall, Julian, Mrs., 1843-1922 Author · British · 1843–1922

Mrs. Julian Marshall (1843–1922) was a British writer and musician. Public information about her is limited, and many details of her life are no longer known; her surviving works nevertheless show a grounding in both literature and music. She is best known for the two-volume The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, which draws on the subject's correspondence to trace the life and circle of the author of Frankenstein and pioneer of women's rights, in a plain, document-based style. She also wrote on the history of English porcelain and of music, reflecting an interest in craft and art history. Her writing relies largely on primary sources and is restrained and objective, preserving useful documentary线索 for later scholarship.