Who is Mary Shelley the writer behind Frankenstein?

Did you know that the first science fiction novel was written by a woman? Mary Shelley brought Frankenstein to life at just 19 years old! In a previously unpublished story, Virginie Girod tells you the story of this woman of letters like no other.  

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born out of wedlock in London in 1797: her parents, intellectuals, believed in free love and the equality of men and women. In an age where girls are being raised to become good wives, young Mary is raised to think for herself. Among his father's associates was the poet Percy Shelley, another nonconformist. This is Mary's first love. It is said that their first meeting took place at the grave of the young woman's mother! Mary's father does not view this affair favorably. And for good reason: Percy is already married! At just 17 years old, Mary, her sister-in-law Claire and Percy ran away. In six weeks, they crossed Europe over more than 1,300 km. Broke and pregnant, Mary returns to England with the ambition of leaving again as quickly as possible.  

It was done two years later. Percy, Mary, Claire and her new lover, the famous poet Lord Byron, meet on the shores of Lake Geneva. The setting is ideal, but the weather is disastrous. To pass the time, the writers embark on a literary challenge: write a ghost story, a fantasy subgenre that was very fashionable at the time. While poets get bogged down in prose that they have little control over, Mary Shelley relies on the latest scientific advances to construct a plausible plot in view of the crazy hope that the first electrical experiments gave rise to. In the short story she writes, it is the electric current that gives life to Frankenstein, a being made from pieces of corpses. But the creature escapes its creator... 

First published anonymously, what became a novel was only attributed to Mary Shelley in 1823. Long reduced to the wife of the poet Percy Shelley, it would take almost two hundred years for her literary genius to be recognized as such. just value.  

Themes covered: Frankenstein, Science Fiction, Science, Literature 

“At the heart of history” is a Europe 1 Studio podcast

- Presentation: Virginie Girod 

- Writing: Sandrine Brugot

- Production: Caroline Garnier and Camille Bichler

- Director: Clément Ibrahim

- Composition of the original music: Julien Tharaud 

- Writing and Distribution: Nathan Laporte

- Communication: Marie Corpet

- Visual: Sidonie Mangin

Online sources and resources 

Cathy Bernheim, Mary Shelley: Who Are You?, 1988 

https://www.rtbf.be/article/frankenstein-cette-experience-desastreuse-en-1803-qui-a-inspire-le-roman-culte-11080195 

https://gallica.bnf.fr/blog/13122018/1818-lexil-italien-de-lord-byron-et-percy-shelley 

https://books.openedition.org/pup/9576