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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (UK: , US: ; née Godwin; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

Shelly's mother died less than a month after giving birth to her. She was raised by her father who was able to provide her with a rich if informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his own anarchist political theories. When she was four, her father married a neighbour with whom Shelley came to have a troubled relationship.

In 1814, Shelley began a romance with one of her father's political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Together with her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, she and Percy left for France and travelled through Europe. Upon their return to England, Shelley was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late 1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.

In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Shelley conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, most likely caused by the brain tumour which killed her at age 53.

Until the 1970s, Shelley was known mainly for her efforts to publish her husband's works and for her novel Frankenstein, which remains widely read and has inspired many theatrical and film adaptations. Recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of Shelley's achievements. Scholars have shown increasing interest in her literary output, particularly in her novels, which include the historical novels Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the apocalyptic novel The Last Man (1826) and her final two novels, Lodore (1835) and Falkner (1837). Studies of her lesser-known works, such as the travel book Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–1846), support the growing view that Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Shelley's works often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by Percy Shelley and the Enlightenment political theories articulated by her father, William Godwin.

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Frankenstein

Victor Frankenstein, traversé par une ambition scientifique démesurée, assemble dans son laboratoire des morceaux de plusieurs cadavres afin de donner vie à une créature. Horrifié par sa création hideuse et surhumaine, il prend la fuite. La créature sans nom livrée à elle même s'échappe alors du laboratoire et commence à tuer des innocents. Jusqu'à ce que, un jour, Frankenstein décide de la traquer...

Véritable chef-d'œuvre de la littérature mondiale, et un incontournable du genre gothique, la légende de Frankenstein constitue l'ouvrage iconique de Marie Shelley. Elle puisa son inspiration lors d'un voyage en Suisse aux cotés de Percy Shelley, et leur ami Lord Byron, dans un château un soir d'orage. Ce dernier proposa que chacun écrive une histoire d'épouvante. À seulement dix-neuf ans, Marie Shelley, rédigea l'œuvre la plus aboutie et effrayante de toutes : « Frankenstein ou le Prométhée moderne ». À la fois gothique, épistolaire, horrifique et philosophique, l'œuvre de Mary Shelley fait aujourd'hui partie des textes précurseurs de la science-fiction. Parmi les innombrables adaptations cinématographique, la plus récente est « Victor Frankenstein » avec James McAvoy et Daniel Radcliffe. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) est une écrivaine anglaise de science-fiction, de fiction historique, de voyage, et de roman gothique. Épousant dès 1816 l'écrivain Percy Bysshe Shelley, elle baigne depuis toute petite dans un milieu favorable au développement de son talent littéraire. Elle jouera un grand rôle dans la diffusion des œuvres posthumes de son mari. La plus grande œuvre de Marie Shelley est le roman qui inspirera le genre de la science-fiction : « Frankenstein ». Marie Shelley a eu l'idée du roman à l'âge de seulement dix-huit ans alors qu'elle était en vacances en Suisse avec Lord Byron et John William Polidori. Elle a aussi écrit de nombreux ouvrages iconiques tels que le roman apocalyptique « Le dernier homme » et le conte de fiction historique « Valperga ».
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Trykt sideantal315 Sider
Udgivelsesdato03 feb. 2022
Udgivet afSAGA Egmont
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ISBN epub9788728125946