Mary Shelley is famous for writing the legendary novel Frankenstein and after nearly 200 years people are still surprised that a woman of only eighteen managed to write a rich and mature novel like Frankenstein. But Mary was no ordinary girl.

She was the daughter of the radical Wollstonecraft (who died soon after her birth) and the often-nearly-forgotten philosopher William Godwin (illustrious author of "Caleb Williams") she was always surrounded by people from literary circles and finally eloped with one of them, the strange but talented Percy Bysshe Shelley.

In Italy she wrote her Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, finishing it in 1817. Her father read the book in November of that year and he was highly impressed, which was certainly against his habit when it came to books. Frankenstein was published on March 11, 1818 without revealing the name of it's author and soon became a success.

After Shelley's death in 1822 Mary stayed for a while in Italy in the neighbourhood of Lord Byron, before returning to England in 1823. There she raised their only surviving son Percy Florence and wrote poems (like The Choice), books and essays. The Last Man (1826) is a frightening account of a new plague eating away mankind.

Mary died in 1851 and was buried at St. Peter's Churchyard, Bournemouth, Dorset. The remains of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft were brought over from Old St. Pancras Churchyard, London and rest in the same grave.

	Other Dorset characters: H & W Head Brewer  /  Thomas Hardy  /  Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall Sir Walter Raleigh  /  Mary Shelly