I suppose if you really think
about it, you’d realize that the author of a book like Frankenstein must be a dark, twisted person. I read it a few years ago for a college
course that I took, but never really considered Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley as
a person. Many of us know that Mary
wrote her gory tale on a sort of dare among some friends to write a ghost
story. Before reading The Determined Heart, this was all I
knew about Mary at all. This book was so
interesting, both as a novel, and as source of information about a talented
woman.
Mary’s mother, Mary
Wollstonecraft Godwin, died only a few days after Mary was born. Both Mary’s mother and her father, William
Godwin, were popular, although controversial authors and they passed their genius
on to their daughter. Mary and her
half-sister, Fanny, were very young when her father married again, and her
relationship with her new stepmother was tumultuous. The marriage also brought Mary two new
stepsiblings, including Clara, who would be a constant source of trouble in
Mary’s life.
Mary was only sixteen when she
fell in love with Percy Blysshe Shelley.
He was married to Harriet at the time, and they had one child with
another on the way when he ran away to Switzerland with Mary and Clara, who had
changed her name to Claire. Although
William Godwin professed to believe that marriage was bondage and espoused the
idea of “free love” he was livid that Mary broke up Harriet and Blysshe Shelley’s
marriage, and refused to recognize her as his daughter any longer. He did, however, continue to woo her husband
as a financier for his failed business ventures for the rest of his life.
The idea of bringing people back
to life came to Mary at a very young age when Samual Taylor Coleridge read her
his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner which
contains a phrase about “life in death.”
When her sister Fanny, and Blysshe’s wife, Harriet, both committed
suicide, and Mary lost multiple children through miscarriages or illness, she sank
into a dark place. The idea of a
creature that had been building in her head and haunting her dreams began to take
shape on paper. Frankenstein was a popular book among critics almost from the
beginning. But even this success could
not spare Mary from further pain. While
the relationship between her and Blysshe, her husband by that time, was no
longer the wonderful, shining thing it had been in the beginning, she still
loved him. He had dalliances with
multiple women, including Mary’s sister, Claire, with whom he fathered a
child. But Mary was still heartbroken
when he drowned on his boat in the middle of a terrible storm in Italy. She dedicated
the remainder of her life to honoring his memory, and supporting her one remaining
child.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s
life was so miserably sad, that I found myself feeling sorry for her. She chose a path that was unpopular, and that
she thought would bring her happiness, but instead brought only bitterness and
pain. While this life of defying convention
and having free love may have seemed appealing at the time, the true unhappiness
of it came to light in her Frankenstein.
I am so glad that I had the
opportunity to read this book. It is
written in a very straight-forward manner.
Ms. May does not use flowery language or descriptions, but as I read I
discovered that they really weren’t necessary.
The life of Mary Shelley speaks for itself, and doesn’t need a lot of verbiage
to improve the telling. I only wish that
the chapters included a headline of the dates, as it was sometimes hard to
follow just how much time had passed.
I feel like I’ve included a lot of
information in this review, but trust me when I say that I’ve barely scratched
the surface of the contents of The
Determined Heart. I highly recommend
it if you have read Frankenstein. If you haven’t read Frankenstein, you should! I
found it to be very interesting from a Christian’s point of view, and it’s even
more so after reading about Mary Shelley’s life. Perhaps the most intriguing thing was when
the atheist Shelley wanted to have her son baptized, so that he could go to
Heaven. Due to the Shelley’s lifestyle,
this book contains scenes that some may find offensive. But I found it to be a true eye-opener to the
lives of some of history’s greatest authors.
Happy Reading!
Lyndsie
I
received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this
review. All opinions are my own, and a
favorable review was not required. Look
for The
Determined Heart on or around September
29.
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