Table Of ContentPALGRAVE LITERARY DICTIONARIES
The Palgrave Literary
Dictionary of Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley
Martin Garrett
Palgrave Literary Dictionaries
Series Editors
Brian G. Caraher
School of English
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Elizabeth K. Switaj
Liberal Arts
College of the Marshall Islands
Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands
Palgrave Literary Dictionaries are concise reference guides containing vital
information for the study and appreciation of major writers and literary
groups. Alphabetical entries provide accessible and informative summaries
focusing on the historical and political contexts, key themes, locations and
texts, as well as the critical reception of writers including Chaucer, Spenser
and Milton. Each volume contains a chronology and a selective guide to
further reading.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14684
Martin Garrett
The Palgrave Literary
Dictionary of Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley
Martin Garrett
Independent Scholar
Cambridge, UK
Palgrave Literary Dictionaries
ISBN 978-1-137-56638-6 ISBN 978-1-137-56639-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56639-3
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does
not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective
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The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are
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To Helen
Also by Martin Garrett
‘A diamond, though set in horn’: Philip Massinger’s Attitude to Spectacle
Massinger: the Critical Heritage (editor)
Sidney: the Critical Heritage (editor)
George Gordon, Lord Byron
A Browning Chronology: Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning: Interviews and Recollections
(editor)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning
Mary Shelley: a Chronology
Mary Shelley
The Palgrave Literary Dictionary of Byron
The Palgrave Literary Dictionary of [P.B.] Shelley
A Romantics Chronology, 1780–1832
Greece: a Literary Companion
Traveller’s Literary Companion: Italy
Venice: a Cultural and Literary Companion
Cambridge: a Cultural and Literary History
Provence: a Cultural History
The Loire: a Cultural History
Oxford
vii
Contents
Series Editors’ Foreword xi
Preface and Acknowledgements xiii
Abbreviations xv
Mary Shelley Chronology xix
Entries A-Z 1
Bibliography 317
ix
Series Editors’ Foreword
The purpose of the Palgrave Literary Dictionaries is to provide the reader with
immediate access to reliable information on some of the major authors of
literature written in the English language. These books are intended for a
readership including students, graduate students, teachers, scholars and
advanced general readers. Each volume will be dedicated either to an indi-
vidual author or to a group of authors. It will offer a concise reference guide,
consisting mainly of entries presented under headwords arranged in alpha-
betical order. The entries will vary in length from about 10 to about 3000
words, depending on the significance of the particular topic. The topics will
include the literary works, individuals, fictional characters, genres, traditions,
events, places, institutions, editors and scholars most relevant to a full and
sophisticated understanding and appreciation of the author (or authors) in
question. The more substantial entries will include suggestions for further
reading, full particulars of which will be supplied in a selective bibliography.
Access to information will be facilitated by extensive cross-referencing.
We trust that volumes in this series will be judged by their effectiveness in
providing quick, clear and convenient access to reliable and scholarly
information.
Belfast, Northern Ireland Brian G. Caraher
Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands Elizabeth K. Switaj
xi
Preface and Acknowledgements
The Palgrave Literary Dictionary of Mary Shelley aims to gather as much
information on her life and work as can be contained in a single volume. The
task has been facilitated by the publication, mainly since the 1980s, of impor-
tant complete editions of her journals, letters, novels, tales, biographies, and
reviews. (For a list, see Abbreviations: 1. Works by Mary Shelley.)
Prefaces to books about Mary Shelley usually mention the problems or
opportunities presented by Frankenstein. Much is known about the novel’s
composition, revision and reception; a great deal has been written about it;
and few works have generated so many sequels, reinterpretations, parodies,
films, plays, illustrations and more loosely related descendants. The Dictionary
aims to cover some of this material while also putting it beside the author’s
many other works in a variety of genres. Helped by recent attention to under-
read books by women, by the collected editions just mentioned and by indi-
vidual editions of several of the novels in the Penguin, Oxford World’s Classics
and Broadview series, these works have been emerging, gradually, from their
unjustified neglect. The Last Man seems now to have crossed the frontier from
occasionally to frequently analysed text and there is much interest in Mathilda.
Development is slower for most of the other works as yet; one advantage of a
dictionary format is the prominence it gives to such relatively neglected mate-
rial as Shelley’s tales and particularly to her wide-ranging Literary Lives of over
sixty Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French writers. Attention to the late
work also provides some counter-balance to the usual concentration on
Shelley’s early work and life: the lives, the authoritative notes for two major
PBS editions, Lodore, Falkner and Rambles were all written and published
between 1831 and 1844.
xiii
