Mary Wollenstonecraft Godwin Shelley was the only daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollenstonecraft. Her life though scattered with tragedies and disgrace, was one of great passion and poetry. Mary Shelley is best known for her novel Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus, which has transcended the Gothic and horror genres. Shelley's other literary works were mildly successful their time, but are little known today. To understand her writing you must first know her background.
             Her mother, Mary Wollenstonecraft was an early feminist. In 1792, she published A Vindication of the Rights of Man. This was book that showed Mary Wollenstonecraft was way ahead of her time. She had an illegitimate child with American industrialist Gilbert Imlay. After her failed relationship with Imlay, Wollenstonecraft met political philosopher and novelist William Godwin in 1796. To ensure the legitimacy of their daughter Mary and William decided to get married on March 29, 1797 at St. Pancras church in London.
             Mary Godwin was born on August 30, 1779. Her mother died ten days later of infections and complications from her delivery. Like other girls, Mary was educated at home. She absorbed the intellectual atmosphere created by her father's visitors and friends. Many of England's leading writers and thinkers, including the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, scientist Humphry Davy, and her father's friend William Nicholson, had an influence on Mary that is noticeable in many of her works. At the age of ten Mary published her first work, a poem entitled, Mounseer Nongtonpaw: or, The Discoveries of John Bull in a Trip to Paris. In 1812-1814 Mary was sent by her father to visit the Baxter family in Dundee, Scotland in an attempt to separate her and her battling stepmother. Upon her return Mary met and fell in love with Percy Bysshe Shelley, a previously married admirer of her father.
             ...