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Fiona Sampson
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In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein Hardcover – June 5, 2018

by Fiona Sampson (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 106 ratings
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Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein in 1818, a prize-winning poet delivers a major new biography of Mary Shelley?as she has never been seen before.


We know the facts of Mary Shelley’s life in some detail—the death of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, within days of her birth; the upbringing in the house of her father, William Godwin, in a house full of radical thinkers, poets, philosophers, and writers; her elopement, at the age of seventeen, with Percy Shelley; the years of peripatetic travel across Europe that followed. But there has been no literary biography written this century, and previous books have ignored the real person—what she actually thought and felt and why she did what she did—despite the fact that Mary and her group of second-generation Romantics were extremely interested in the psychological aspect of life.

In this probing narrative, Fiona Sampson pursues Mary Shelley through her turbulent life, much as Victor Frankenstein tracked his monster across the arctic wastes. Sampson has written a book that finally answers the question of how it was that a nineteen-year-old came to write a novel so dark, mysterious, anguished, and psychologically astute that it continues to resonate two centuries later. No previous biographer has ever truly considered this question, let alone answered it.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pegasus Books
  4. Publication date
    June 5, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1681777525
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1681777528
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Even for those of us who thought we knew everything about the young author of Frankenstein, Fiona Sampson’s brilliant new biography has many surprises in store. The ground on which [Shelley] stands, the very apartments in which she lived, are freshly illuminated, newly imagined, helping us draw closer to this fascinating but elusive writer.This is not so different a project from Mary Shelley’s own: to breathe life into the dead, to bring new life to the archives of the past." ― Washington Post

"British poet and academic Fiona Sampson’s new study In Search of Mary Shelley focuses almost exclusively on her subject's youth. She wants to tell us about what she calls the ‘chewy’ bits—the sex scandals, the haunted nights in Swiss villas, the Sturm und Drang. And she does it in a way that is unapologetically selective, giving us her Mary in a series of "freeze frames" or tableaux: biography by lightning flashes. If you are after bravura scene-setting, however, and an ardent inhabiting of the book's subject, Ms. Sampson can't be bettered. Ms. Sampson throws herself wholeheartedly into satisfying our curiosity about the psychological triggers behind Frankenstein." ― Wall Street Journal

"Mary's life has unending fascination. [Sampson's] goal is to 'bring Mary closer to us.' She sees Mary's turbulent life in the context of the Romantic Movement, and as part of an early wave of feminism that ended in the conservative Victorian era." ― New York Times Book Review

"Mary’s life is recounted with insight and and empathy by Fiona Sampson’s In Search of Mary Shelley the most engaging of a clutch of books published to mark the novel’s bicentenary." ― The Economist

"Luminous. Sampson valuably addresses why Frankenstein possesses such enduring power. Highly recommended for general readers interested in women’s writing and literary history." ― Library Journal (starred)

"Plumbing her formative years as well as the depths of her psyche for clues, Sampson chronicles the circumstances and events that preceded her subject’s extraordinarily imaginative leap into new literary horizons. [A] fascinating story of the inner workings and motivations of a genius well ahead of her time on the 200th anniversary of her masterpiece." ― Booklist (starred)

"A perceptive biography. Sampson demonstrates why the story of Shelley and Frankenstein remains so intriguing, even today. The author deftly plumbs the depths of Mary's psyche to enlighten us about both Shelleys and reveal the profound effects they had on each other." ― Kirkus Reviews

"An incisive and emotionally resonant portrait of Mary Shelley. Succeeds in bringing an unconventional woman to vivid life." ― Publishers Weekly

"Sampson focuses on key episodes that provide essential clues to understanding the author. Each episode is like a tile in a mosaic, beautifully crafted and essential to Shelley’s complex portrait. Or, given Sampson’s status as one of England’s pre-eminent living poets, perhaps it is more apt to say that each chapter is like a stanza, resulting in a poetic exploration of one of the most influential novelists in English literature. Illuminates a woman whose genius enabled her not only to survive but also to triumph." ― BookPage

About the Author

Fiona Sampson is a poet who has been shortlisted twice for the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize. She has received the Cholmondeley Award, the Newdigate Prize, and the Writer’s Award from the Arts Councils of England and of Wales, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Trustee of the Wordsworth Trust. Please visit her at www.fionasampson.co.uk.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pegasus Books; First Edition (June 5, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1681777525
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1681777528
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 106 ratings

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Fiona Sampson

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
106 global ratings
Interesting book but e-book typography is terrible
3 out of 5 stars
Interesting book but e-book typography is terrible
This books seems interesting so far, if a bit speculative for a biography. My main issue is that the kindle format has forced full justification of the text, with the alignment options disabled, so there are huge gaps between words when reading on a smartphone. It’s just very distracting, detracts from the experience and is just a bizarre choice.
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Top reviews from the United States

Linda Saroucos
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating reading
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2018
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Fascinating reading about a unique lady for her times. The background from which the masterpiece Frankenstein was created and her relationship with other great romantic writers of her time.
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lisaleo (Lisa Yount)
4.0 out of 5 stars odd but intense biography
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2020
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Whether you like this book will depend on your taste in approaches to biography. Sampson does not follow the usual nonfiction format, which sticks as much as possible to documentable facts and minimizes speculation; she feels free to speculate at length on what Mary might have been thinking at various points, why she or others might have behaved as they did, etc. Nor, at the other end of the biography spectrum, does she take the path of the historical novel and attempt to place readers inside the subject’s mind. Rather, she presents a series of “portraits” of Mary, described in the present tense, at various points in her life, then tells us how she came to be in the situations pictured. The effect, to me, was like hearing about Mary from a close and devoted but gossipy friend who could not keep her own ideas out of the picture: undeniably vivid, but at the same time always at arm’s length.

Nonetheless, the book was an enjoyable way of learning more about Shelley, who has managed to remain famous yet in many ways unknown. Many people know that she was the daughter of writer-philosopher William Godwin and feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft (who died shortly after giving birth to her); that she married famous Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who died young in a boating accident; and, of course, that she wrote Frankenstein after an evening of telling ghost stories with, among others, Shelley and Lord Byron (George Gordon). Far fewer, however, know that she wrote numerous other novels during her long life (none of which are remembered today); that her “romantic” marriage to the young poet had more than a few rough patches; or that she suffered many painful losses, not only of Percy Shelley but of several children who died in infancy or early childhood (one son lived to grow up). I found it interesting to learn more about this remarkable woman and see her placed in the context of her time.
8 people found this helpful
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Library Acquisitions
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2018
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Great book and great service!!
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Marley
3.0 out of 5 stars Too much speculation.
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2018
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While I found this interesting, it was disturbing to note that much of what she wrote was speculation. "It is possible that..." "One could assume that..." At least she recognized this. There is probably a more definitive work out there if you are really interested in the life of Mary Shelly.
5 people found this helpful
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LiteraryTriathlete
5.0 out of 5 stars A poet's view of Mary Shelley's life brings this enigmatic woman to life.
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2018
Fiona brings her poetic sensibility to Mary's life. Biographies should be much more than a birth-to-death recounting of someone's life, and Fiona does a marvelous job trying to grasp Shelley's essence, not just what she was doing, when she was doing it, and where. Miranda Seymou's biography of Mary is also excellent in a different way. Fiona's is almost novelistic and literary and it's evocation.
5 people found this helpful
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Darice L. Moore
3.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Edition: Get a Proofreader
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2023
I am currently reading the Kindle edition of the novel. I'm not sure what scanning software was used to create this disaster, but its myriad errors include:

-- leaving out opening but not closing quotation marks, consistently. Where does Sampson end and the source material begin? Who knows!?

-- Letter for number transcriptions (e.g., nth for 9th, ioth for 10th).

-- St. Pancras is continually rendered as "St. Paneras", leaving one to wonder why Percy and Mary didn't just get jobs at the local sandwich shop to solve their financial woes.

There was one error, though, that was not due to scanning, and that's a reference to "Dr. Frankenstein." Sorry, but Victor didn't actually get his degree, being sidetracked by an independent project of some complexity, requiring complete and unyielding focus.

I'm intrigued by the concept of the book, and reading it is enjoyable when I can wade through the scanning errors. Coming to it directly off reading Seymour's excellent biography, I find it a little light when I was in a mood to dig more deeply, but that's a difference of approach, not an indictment.
One person found this helpful
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Tiffany R Patton
1.0 out of 5 stars Didn’t finish the book
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2021
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It did not keep my attention well enough to finish. I don’t know if it’s the writing, the way the story is layered out or the subject matter
2 people found this helpful
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Chris Macdonald Dennis
2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2018
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It ended up boring me, which was disappointing. I had high expectations of the book.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Mrs Lorraine Starkey
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting, insightful and well written book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 11, 2019
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This is one of the better books, written objectively about Mary Shelley and her relationships, particularly with her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. There are some fascinating and realistic accounts relating to her experiences of travelling, which was a constant in her life, and which is often overlooked or romanticized. A great book and one I feel will refernced to for a long time. Highly recommended.
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Enchanted England - sarahNet
4.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary life of sex, lies and literature
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2018
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'In Search of Mary Shelley' is a good general introduction to Mary Shelley's extraordinary life of sex, lies and writing. If nothing else it proved hard to count the number of babies who were wrongly attributed to fathers, hidden and died quietly in far flung corners of Europe. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that Mary Shelley attracted those with malicious intent and regularly betrayed by people who should have been caring for her. If Shelley and Byron were of the #metoo generation their works would be excised from public record and never studied again. The book is not so detailed in the latter years of her life and I was disappointed that her latter work and ideas were not explored in more depth and context. Her letters were referred to but were not reproduced as a whole which made me suspect that selected highlights were being presented to back up the author's own point of view.
What let the book down for me was the author's habit of writing in a constant present tense, that in the end proved incredibly distracting. It did not add to the clarity of an already confused storyline (e.g. babies above). The reader tries to follow the heroine through her historical and complex times but constantly has to untangle the past from the present. I have lost the page in the book where we had the equivalent of 'St Pancras is set in countryside and is the site of a bustling railway station,.' but at that point I nearly stopped reading. The author tends to repeat a word in one paragraph. For example, the word report turned up several times in one. I have complete sympathy with the author here but a stronger editorial eye would have turned this good biography into a great one.
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Jeanette H.
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2018
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great for academic studies
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2024
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Must have totally fascinating
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent biography
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2018
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Delighted with this book. Having taught 'Frankenstein' to GCSE and A level students as well as Shelley it was a really interesting read, well researched and brought her story to life in an informative and entertaining way. Very good read and highly recommended. Fiona Sampson does it again.
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