Mary Shelley is of course known because of her short novel Frankenstein. Still, she was always writing and these tales and mysteries written on her extended travels show how interested she was in the strangeness of people. Perhaps she wanted to make her mark in a tribute to her famous mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, and her famous husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who called her “a child of love and light.” She saw the movement to the future in rather dramatic and romantic terms but always with an eye to female struggle. Politically she believed in diplomacy and showing love to the opposition. These stories embody her views.

Mary Shelley is of course known because of her short novel Frankenstein. Still, she was always writing and these tales and mysteries written on her extended travels show how interested she was in the strangeness of people. Perhaps she wanted to make her mark in a tribute to her famous mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, and her famous husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who called her “a child of love and light.” She saw the movement to the future in rather dramatic and romantic terms but always with an eye to female struggle. Politically she believed in diplomacy and showing love to the opposition. These stories embody her views.