The book tells the story of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein – it focusses mostly on her relationship with Percy Shelley, the poet, a married man when they met. Mary runs away with him, taking her step-sister Claire with them, to France. The three of them meet up with Lord Byron in Geneva – and Claire becomes his mistress. After Harriet, Shelley’s estranged wife, commits suicide Percy and Mary marry – only to legitimate their children. After Percy’s death Mary spends most of her time editing his poems.
Frankenstein was published anonymously because the publisher didn’t think that men would read this store if they knew a woman had written it. Lord Byron helped Mary to get her name on the book after it had been published.
This was the prompt for The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge I was dreading – I really dislike poetry and read a book in verse a while back (Clap when you land) and really didn’t like it. Thankfully this book was really good – the drawings and text really complimented each other.
Read for The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 17: Told in Verse
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
