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Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley in Bath
Mary Shelley in Bath
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A brand-new collection of Mary Shelley’s work, all written during, and inspired by, the short yet influential time she spent living in the historic literary city of Bath.
Peta's review
The Lane Bookshop has recently acquired beautifully bound titles from Manderley Press, including gems like Rosemary Sutcliffe’s Sun Horse, Moon Horse and The Armourer’s House; Katherine Cecil Thurston’s The Fly on the Wheel; Henry James’ Washington Square; and Mary Shelley in Bath. Each title comes with an Introduction by authors such as Colm Tóibín, Alexander McCall-Smith and Fiona Sampson. Manderley Press was established in 2021 by Rebeka Russell and derives its name from the house in Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 classic Rebecca. Russell’s mandate is to revive forgotten books inspired by specific places, and that the cover of the book should be as captivating as the story within. Each title is beautifully produced as quarter hardbacks, printed on high quality paper. These are perfect as a gift, and for collectors, or anyone who appreciates the aesthetic beauty of a book.
While it’s hard to think of the city of Bath without thinking of Jane Austen, it was also home for a relatively short but important time for the nineteenth-century author, Mary Shelley (Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin as she was then). The book is introduced by the renowned historian and the author of the biography In Search of Mary Shelley, Fiona Sampson; it explores the months from September 1816 to January 1817 that Shelley spent in Bath when she was nineteen years old. With her was her nine-month-old child William, nursemaid Elise Duvillard and her half-sister Claire Clairmont, heavily pregnant with the poet Byron’s child. Mary’s lover and the father of her child, the poet Percy Shelley, did not settle with the women in Bath but travelled to and from London, where he found lodgings at 5 Abbey Church Yard, next door to the famous Pump Room, prominent in Austen’s Bath novel, Northanger Abbey (posthumously published 1817). Although 5 Abbey Church Yard no longer stands, a plaque was unveiled there in 2018, proclaiming that the novel “Frankenstein was written on this spot in 1816-17.” But in fact, only Chapter 4 was completed there. This correction is included in Mary Shelley in Bath, along with Mary Shelley’s diary entries, four of her short stories, her letters to Percy Shelley, and her varied and extensive reading list, including Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Caroline Lamb’s Glenarvon, Johnson’s Rambler, Rousseau’s Emile, and Milton’s Paradise Lost, from which Mary would take the epigraph to Frankenstein. She also attended various public lectures on experimental science and galvanism, given by Dr. Wilkinson at the Kingston Lecture Room, and took up drawing lessons in the evening.
During her time in Bath, Shelley endured the suicides of her half-sister Fanny Imlay and Percy Shelley’s estranged wife Harriet Westbrook. The death of Westbrook meant that Mary and Percy were free to be married, which they did in a private ceremony in Bath on 30th December 1816. Claire Clairmont’s daughter, Allegra, was born on 12 January 1817, although Shelley curiously does not record this in her diary. Her diary entry of 24 January 1817 offers the general comment that sums up her time in Bath: “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” Shelley returned to London on 26 January 1817, two days after William’s first birthday, and pregnant again. The child, a daughter, Clara, was born on 17 September 1817, but would tragically die one year later when the Shelleys travelled to Venice to evade financial creditors and social scandal.
Mary Shelley in Bath is a highly engaging and informative account of a time when Mary Shelley struggled with devastating personal loss and societal disapproval, as well as being open to new ideas in science. It offers us insights into how her experiences and state of mind influenced her future writing, particularly the gothic classic Frankenstein, which explores the use and abuse of science, and is imbued with a profound sense of melancholy and pessimism.
Mary Shelley in Bath is also a pleasure to look at. Its specially commissioned cover was designed by artist Eleanor Macnair, who based it on Richard Rothwell’s 1840 portrait of Shelley housed in London’s National Portrait Gallery. Macnair photographed Rothwell’s painting and printed it on cloth with head and tail bands, to create an image of the author sculpted from Play-Doh. It’s a visually inventive and delightful cover for a highly readable book.
Mary Shelley in Bath is now available in the Lane Bookshop.
Peta
Publisher Review
A brand-new collection of Mary Shelley’s work, all written during, and inspired by, the short yet influential time she spent living in the historic literary city of Bath.
The acclaimed poet and historian Fiona Sampson - also the author of the biography In Search of Mary Shelley - has written a fascinating introduction to the book; and it is illustrated by the local-to-Bath artist Eleanor Macnair.
Step into the intriguing world of Mary Shelley's transformative time in Bath, a period that deeply influenced her literary genius. In Mary Shelley in Bath, we will explore the personal and creative evolution of the renowned author during her stay in this elegant Georgian city.
Against the backdrop of Bath's grand architecture, bustling social scene and serene countryside, Shelley grapples with personal loss, burgeoning ideas and the societal constraints of her era.
Yet during her time in the city, Shelley finds solace and inspiration, leading to the creation of her iconic novel, Frankenstein.
"Bath, for Mary, was both a refuge and a place of intense sorrow. Here, amid the society of strangers, she faced the devastating loss of those closest to her, and it was within these elegant streets that her private griefs shaped the darkest corners of her imagination."
- Miranda Seymour, in Mary Shelley (2000)
This collection of her journals and letters - as well as the chapter of Frankenstein that Mary penned during her stay in Bath, and additional short stories inspired by her time living there - reveals to us the true nature of her closest relationships, the influence of the city's intellectual circles on her work and the profound impact of Bath's haunting beauty on her imagination.
"Bath, with its air of elegance and refinement, offered little comfort to Mary. Here, amidst its superficial gaiety, she was confronted by the shadows of death and despair, with each tragedy pressing more heavily on her fragile spirit."
- Muriel Spark, in Mary Shelley (1951)
Mary Shelley in Bath thus explores how a place can shape a writer's life and work, offering readers a deeper understanding of the woman behind one of literature's most enduring masterpieces. Discover through her work the city that helped to forge a literary legend.
This book has been beautifully illustrated by Eleanor Macnair, who used one of the portraits of Mary Shelley in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, as inspiration for her own composition of the author sculpted from Play-Doh.
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