Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. In the months immediately following Shelley's death Mary lived at Albaro on the outskirts of Genoa. Her only regular companions were her young son, Percy Florence, and the journal she began on 2 October 1

William Godwin- Letter to Mary Shelley

Dec 2nd, 2010 3m 34s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. This is the letter Godwin wrote to Mary after hearing of Shelley's death. Initially he seems more sorry for himself than for his daughter, complaining of her failure to write to him, but he then talks hop

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Letter to Mary Shelley

Dec 2nd, 2010 3m 23s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. 'Everybody is in despair and every thing in confusion' writes Shelley in his last letter to Mary. He was in Pisa to discuss a new journal, The Liberal, with Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron. Shelley had been del

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Adonais. An Elegy on the Death of John Keats

Dec 2nd, 2010 8m 20s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. This great elegy was prompted by the news of the death of John Keats in Rome, and by Shelley's belief that Keats's illness was caused by the hostile notices his work had been given in the Quarterly Review

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Opening lines of 'The Triumph of Life'

Dec 2nd, 2010 2m 2s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Shelley worked on 'The Triumph of Life', a dark and visionary poem, while living at the Villa Magni. At the time of his death it was still in a very incomplete state but despite this it is generally consi

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Dedication fair copy of 'With a guitar. To Jane'

Dec 2nd, 2010 3m 42s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Shelley presented this light-hearted poem, copied out in his best hand, with the guitar he gave to Jane Williams in 1822. Taking his cue, perhaps, from the Shakespearean Christian name of the guitar's mak

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Fair copy of Ode to the West Wind

Dec 2nd, 2010 3m 51s

Part of the Shelly's Ghost Exhibition. Shelley's best-known poem was written in Florence in late 1819. Technically it is a series of four sonnets written in 'terza rima', the verse-form Shelley would use again, with similar fluency, in his fina

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Draft of 'Ozymandias'

Dec 2nd, 2010 51s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. 'Ozymandias' is the Greek name for Ramses II, who ruled Egypt for sixty-seven years from 1279 to 1213 BC. Ramses II was a military conqueror and a great builder, but Shelley's sonnet describes how the ach

Mary Shelley (with Percy Bysshe Shelley) - Draft of Frankenstein

Dec 2nd, 2010 4m 23s

Mary Shelley drafted Frankenstein in two tall notebooks. The first notebook was probably purchased in Geneva, the second several months later in England. They were later disbound, and now exist as single sheets. Shown here is an original openin

Harriet Shelley - Letter to Eliza Westbrook, Shelley and her parents

Dec 2nd, 2010 3m 16s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Harriet Shelley drowned herself in December 1816, aged twenty-one. Her body was recovered from the Serpentine on 10 December, and an inquest into the death of one 'Harriet Smith' was held the following da

Mary Shelley - Letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley

Dec 2nd, 2010 1m 38s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Shelley and Mary arrived back in London to face the almost universal disapproval of family and friends, and severe money problems. Shelley was now financially responsible for Mary and Claire as well as Ha

Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley - Joint journal entry

Dec 2nd, 2010 5m 5s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Shelley and Mary eloped at 4.15 am on 28 July 1814, accompanied by Mary's step-sister Jane Clairmont. They were pursued by Mrs Godwin (Claire's mother), who caught up with them the following day at Calais

Percy Bysshe Shelley: Letter to William Godwin

Dec 2nd, 2010 1m 30s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Using false names, Shelley sent copies of The Necessity of the Atheism to 'men of thought and learning', including bishops and clergymen. Here, writing as 'Jennings Stukeley', he sends 'a tract' to Willia

William Godwin: Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Dec 2nd, 2010 8m 5s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Godwin's memoir of Mary Wollstonecraft has been called the first modern biography. At the time, however, its frankness and emotional candour provoked general outrage. Godwin did not hesitate to include th

Mary Wollstonecraft Three notes to William Godwin

Dec 2nd, 2010 1m 39s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Even after their marriage Godwin and Wollstonecraft preferred to live independently during the day, and communicate by correspondence. They regularly exchanged anything from long, carefully composed lette

Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Dec 2nd, 2010 3m 38s

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. In her most famous work Mary Wollstonecraft argued that if women were educated in the same way as men they would perform as well. And that society was wasting its assets by failing to educate them and to

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