824 Why Did Mary Shelley Try to Erase Her? The Claire Clairmont Story (with Emily Franklin) | My Last Book with Mathelinda Nabugodi
The History of Literature

824 Why Did Mary Shelley Try to Erase Her? The Claire Clairmont Story (with Emily Franklin) | My Last Book with Mathelinda Nabugodi

B2Upper-intermediateAugust 17, 20261 hr 5 min
  • Interview
  • Arts & culture

It's an often-told, momentous story: how in the summer of 1816, four friends, including famed Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, along with Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley) and Byron's doctor John Polidori, gathered in a Swiss villa and decided to tell each other ghost stories to pass the time. Mary Shelley began to write Frankenstein, and John Polidori wrote what would become the first modern vampire tale. It's hard to imagine a more spectacular outcome for four people--except that there were not four people involved. There were five. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist...

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Hello to all you listeners trying to stay cool in the heat of August.

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The History of Literature podcast is a member of the Podglamorit network and LitHub Radio. Hello to all you listeners trying to stay cool in the heat of August. Imagine a year without a summer. It happened in 1816 after a volcanic eruption launched millions of tons of ash and gases

0:22

into the atmosphere, blocking the sunlight and cooling the Earth. It affected everyone, of course. Instead of the bright, warm sunshine that the northern hemisphere was accustomed to, the summer months brought darkness and cold.

0:37

But it was an especially notable summer for four people in particular, and these are the ones we remember from a history of literature perspective. Mary Godwin, who would later become Mary Shelley, her lover, the poet Percy Shelley, their friend Lord Byron, and Byron's doctor, John Polidori.

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