FRANKENSTEIN DISASSEMBLED: The remarkable life of Mary Shelley.

Fiona Sampson's probing biography of Mary Shelley is the first of a trilogy of biographies of 19th century writers of the romantic period. After sharing her approach to biography, Fiona talks about Mary's famous parents: Mary Wollstonecraft, influential philosopher and educator, who died of puerpural fever shortly after Mary's birth, and William Godwin and radical philosopher. We discuss the intellectual household in which she became a precociously intelligent child, her reading that included key 'natural philosophers, of the day, two long childhood trips that found their way into 'Frankenstein', her elopement at 16 with philandering poet Shelley, the ever-present step-sister, and their subsequent travels. These included the fateful stay in Geneva where Byron had taken a villa and the idea of writing horror stories arose. The book was completed when she was only 18 and we explore the various themes and interpretations of the novel, an immediate best-seller with several early stage versions. We talk about her bereavments (3 of 4 children and Shelley, in 1822), her challenging life post-Shelley, and her other novels, including the less known but equally genre-creating 'The Last Man'. To conclude, Fiona reads a summing up section from the end of her book. A terrific in depth conversation about an extraordinary woman.

Participants:

Fiona Sampson, poet, biographer, Senior Research Fellow, Harris Manchester College University of Oxford. https://www.fionasampson.co.uk/

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk

Fiona's biography 'In search of mary Shelley': https://www.fionasampson.co.uk/book/in-search-of-mary-shelley-the-girl-who-wrote-frankenstein/

Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus' (1818): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's 'The Last Man' (1826): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Man

Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Portrait sketch by KB

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