This is a bibliography of works by Mary Shelley (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851), the British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Until the 1970s, Mary Shelley was known mainly for her efforts to publish Percy Shelley's works and for Frankenstein. Recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of Mary Shelley’s achievements, however. Scholars have shown increasing interest in her literary output, particularly in her novels, which include the historical novels Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the apocalyptic novel The Last Man (1826), and her final two novels, Lodore (1835) and Falkner (1837). Studies of her lesser-known works such as the travel book Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–46) support the growing view that Mary Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Mary Shelley's works often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by Percy Shelley and Enlightenment political theories.
Collections of Mary Shelley's papers are housed in The Abinger Collection and The Bodleian Shelley Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, the New York Public Library (particularly The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle), the Huntington Library, the British Library, and in the John Murray Collection.
The following list is based on W. H. Lyles's Mary Shelley: An Annotated Bibliography and Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings. It lists first editions of works authored by Mary Shelley, except where indicated.
Novels + Title First publication Notes Online textFrankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus 3 vols. London: Printed for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, 1818 (MS 1816-revised until 1831) There are six important versions of Frankenstein, two manuscript and four printed: "Shelley's manuscript; the fair copy manuscript, the 1818 first edition, the 1821 second overall edition published in Paris translated into French by Jules Saladin with strong emphasis on black magic and the supernatural to which the book was the first to attribute Mary Shelley as the author of Frankenstein and the only such edition to do so during the lifetime of Percy Shelley who was said to be extremely proud of the 1821 edition. The first edition of 1818 and second overall edition of 1821 were the only editions of Frankenstein to be published as a three volume set with the 1821 edition being the rarest of all printed editions. The annotated Thomas copy, and the 1831 edition." William Godwin edited a version for the press in 1823, but he had no help from Mary Shelley and thus the edition is usually disregarded. Mary Shelley revised the 1818 text in 1831, creating a substantially new text. The editors of the Broadview Press edition of the novel write that "the 1818 and 1831 editions of Frankenstein are best treated as two separate texts". Anne K. Mellor argues that after her personal tragedies, Shelley altered the text to suggest that humans could not control their own destinies and Maurice Hindle notes that the "1831 version strips the novel of much of its context, removing a number of references to contemporary science...and Godwinian philosophy."D. L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf, "A Note on the Text", Frankenstein, 2nd ed., Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1999. FrankensteinValperga: Or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca 3 vols. London: Printed for G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823 ValpergaThe Last Man 3 vols. London: Henry Colburn, 1826 Google Books (Vol. 2 of 1826 Paris ed.)The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance 3 vols. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830 Google Books (1857)Lodore 3 vols. London: Richard Bentley, 1835 Google BooksFalkner. A Novel 3 vols. London: Saunders and Otley, 1837 GutenbergMathilda Ed. Elizabeth Nitchie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959. Manuscript: MS. Abinger d. 33 Gutenberg
Travel narratives + Title Authors First publication Manuscript Notes Online textHistory of a Six Weeks' Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland: with Letters Descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley London: T. Hookham, Jun.; and C. and J. Ollier, 1817; revised and published as "Journal of a Six Weeks' Tour" and "Letters from Geneva" in Essays from Abroad, Translations and Fragments, by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited by Mrs. Shelley (London: Edward Moxon, 1840); revised and published as a single volume in 1845 (London: Edward Moxon)Moskal, Jeanne. "Introductory note" to History of a Six Weeks' Tour. The Novels and Selected Works of Mary Shelley. Vol. 8. Ed. Jeanne Moskal. London: William Pickering (1996), 1. Two draft leaves in Mary Shelley's hand survive and are in the Abinger collection at the Bodleian library: MS. Abinger c. 63.formerly Abinger Dep. b. 214/4. Moskal, "Introductory note" to History of a Six Weeks' Tour, 6. The Tour is Mary Shelley's first published work; it includes the first publication of Percy Shelley's poem "Mont Blanc".Benjamin Colbert, "Contemporary Notice of the Shelleys' History of a Six Weeks' Tour: Two New Early Reviews". Keats-Shelley Journal 48 (1999): 22–29. History of a Six Weeks' Tour Rambles in Germany and Italy, in 1840, 1842, and 1843 Mary Shelley 2 vols. London: Edward Moxon, 1844 Rambles is Shelley's last published work. Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840
Short stories —. "A Tale of the Passions, or, the Death of Despina". The Liberal 1 (1822): 289–325. —. "The Bride of Modern Italy". The London Magazine 9 (1824): 351–363. —. "Lacy de Vere". Forget Me Not for 1827. 1826.This story is listed in Markley, but not in Lyles. —. "The Convent of Chailot". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXVIII.Markley writes that the case for attribution to MS is "strongly suggestive" (lxxxiv). This story is listed in Markley, but not in Lyles. —. "Ferdinando Eboli. A Tale". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXIX. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and R. Jennings, 1828. —. "The Mourner". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and R. Jennings, 1829. —. "The Evil Eye. A Tale". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and R. Jennings, 1829. —. "The False Rhyme". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and R. Jennings, 1829. —. "The Swiss Peasant". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and R. Jennings and Chaplin, 1831. —. "Transformation". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and R. Jennings and Chaplin, 1831. —. "The Dream, A Tale". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXII. Ed. Frederick Mansel Reynolds. London: Published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1831. —. "The Brother and Sister, An Italian Story". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIII. Ed. Frederick Mansel Reynolds. London: Published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman/Paris: Rittner and Goupill/Frankfurt: Charles Jügill, 1832. —. "The Invisible Girl". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIII. Ed. Frederick Mansel Reynolds. London: Published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman/Paris: Rittner and Goupill/Frankfurt: Charles Jũgill, 1832. —. "The Smuggler and His Family". Original Compositions in Prose and Verse. London: Published by Edmund Lloyd, 1833. —. "The Mortal Immortal". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIV. Ed. Frederick Mansel Reynolds. London: Published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman/Paris: Rittner and Goupill/Berlin: A. Asher, 1833. —. "The Elder Son". Heath's Book of Beauty. 1835. Ed. Countess of Blessington. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman/Paris: Rittner and Goupil/Berling: A. Asher, 1834. —. "The Trial of Love". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXV. Ed. Frederick Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman/Paris: Rittner and Goupill/Berlin: A. Asher, 1834. —. "The Parvenue". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXVII. Ed. The Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley. London: Published for Longman, Rees, Orme, Green, and Longman/Paris: Delloy and Co., 1836. —. "The Pilgrims". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXVIII. London: Published by Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans/Paris: delloy and Co., 1837. —. "Euphrasia: A Tale of Greece". The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans/Paris: Delloy and Co., 1838. —. "Roger Dodsworth: The Reanimated Englishman" (1863).Bibliography: Roger Dodsworth: The Reanimated Englishman, Internet Speculative Fiction Database, retrieved 4 June 2011 —. "The Heir of Mondolfo".Appleton's Journal: A Monthly Miscellany of Popular Literature (NY) N.S. 2 (1877): 12–23. —. "Valerius: The Reanimated Roman" (1819).
Note: The short story "The Pole", published in The Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée in 1832, is often misattributed to Mary Shelley, as in its original publication, it was said to be written by "the Author of 'Frankenstein.'" However, this has since been disproven, as "The Pole" was actually written by Claire Clairmont.Mary Shelley: Collected Tales and Stories with Original Engravings. Published 1976, edited by Charles E. Robinson.
Children's literature + Title Authors First publication Composition date Manuscript Notes Online textProserpine Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley The Winter's Wreath for 1832. London: Wittaker, Treacher, and Arnot, n[o].d[ate].Markley does not list this publication but Lyles does. Citation from Judith Pascoe, "Proserpine and Midas", The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley, Ed. Esther Schor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2003), 190, n. 13. Finished by 3 April 1820Lucy Morrison and Staci Stone, "Proserpine", A Mary Shelley Encyclopedia, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (2003), 352. Fragment of the manuscript is in Pforzheimer Collection at the New York Public LibraryMarkley, "Introduction", Literary Lives, Vol. 4, xl-xli. Percy Shelley contributed two lyric poems: "Arethusa" and "Song of Proserpine While Gathering Flowers on the Plain of Enna". The published version of the play was cut by about one-fifth from the manuscript version.Caretti, Laura. "'Dear Mother, Leave Me Not!' Mary Shelley and the Myth of Proserpine". Mary versus Mary. Eds. Lilla Maria Crisafulli and Giovanna Silvani. Naples: Liguori (2001), 200. GutenbergMidas Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley Proserpine & Midas. Two unpublished Mythological Dramas by Mary Shelley. Ed. A. H. Koszul. London: Humphrey Milford, 1922.Marjean D. Purinton, "Polysexualities and Romantic Generations in Mary Shelley's Mythological Dramas Midas and Proserpine". Women's Writing 6.3 (1999): 389. 1820 Percy Shelley contributed two lyric poems. GutenbergMaurice; or, The Fisher's Cot Mary Shelley Ed. Claire Tomalin. London: Viking, 1998. 10 August 1820Claire Tomalin, "Introduction", Maurice; or, The Fisher's Cot. London: Viking (1998), 1. This manuscript was discovered by Cristina Dazzi in Italy in 1997.Tomalin, "Introduction", 7.
Articles and reviews —. "Madame D'Houtetôt". The Liberal 2 (1823): 67–83. —. "Giovanni Villani". The Liberal 2 (1823): 281–97.