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Home , Byron (play), Claire Clairmont, Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Mazeppa (poem), Villa Diodati

Peter Harrington

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Frankenstein

private preview 25 september 2012 blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart. If I did not accomplish these things, my ghost story would be unworthy of its name. I thought and pondered—vainly. I felt that blank incapability of invention which is the greatest misery of authorship, when dull Nothing replies to our anxious invocations. Have you thought of a story? I was asked each morning, and each morning I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative. … Many and long were the conversations between Lord and Shelley, to which I was a devout but nearly silent listener. During one of these, various philosophical doctrines were discussed, and among others the nature of the principle of life, and whether there was any probability of its ever being discovered and communicated. … Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth. Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had gone by, before we retired to rest. When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie. I saw—with shut eyes, but acute mental vision, —I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw [SHELLEY, Mary.] ; or, The Modern . London: the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Presentation for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, 1818 Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human First edition, presentation copy to , with the author’s endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world. His copy of the inscription to the front flyleaf: “To Lord Byron from the Author”. An success would terrify the artist; he would rush away from his odious handywork, unsurpassable association copy of the best known fiction of the Romantic era, horror-stricken. He would hope that, left to itself, the slight spark of life which he had communicated would fade; that this thing, which had received such imperfect first edition of perhaps the most evocative presentation copy conceivable in all nineteenth- animation, would subside into dead matter; and he might sleep in the belief Frankenstein, century literature. that the silence of the grave would quench for ever the transient existence of the The story of the genesis of Frankenstein is well known. The stormy night in hideous corpse which he had looked upon as the cradle of life. He sleeps; but he June 1816 at the on the shores of Lake , during which a is awakened; he opens his eyes; behold the horrid thing stands at his bedside, inscribed ghost-story writing contest between Byron, the Shelleys, and Byron’s physician opening his curtains, and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculative eyes. Polidori led to the composition of ’s , has entered literary I opened mine in terror. The idea so possessed my mind, that a thrill of fear ran in Mary history. According to Mary’s recollection in the preface to the third edition of through me … I could not so easily get rid of my hideous phantom; still it haunted Frankenstein, the contest itself was Byron’s idea: me. I must try to think of something else. I recurred to my ghost story, my tiresome Shelley’s unlucky ghost story! O! if I could only contrive one which would frighten my reader In the summer of 1816, we visited Switzerland, and became the neighbours of Lord as I myself had been frightened that night! Byron. At first we spent our pleasant hours on the lake, or wandering on its shores; hand to Lord and Lord Byron, who was writing the third canto of Childe Harold, was the only one among us who put his thoughts upon paper. These, as he brought them successively Byron to us, clothed in all the light and harmony of poetry, seemed to stamp as divine the glories of heaven and earth, whose influences we partook with him. But it proved a wet, ungenial summer, and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house. Some volumes of ghost stories, translated from the German into French, fell into our hands. … I have not seen these stories since then; but their incidents are as fresh in my mind as if I had read them yesterday. “We will each write a ghost story,” said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded to. There were four of us. The noble author began a tale, a fragment of which he printed at the end of his poem of . Shelley, more apt to embody ideas and sentiments in the radiance of brilliant imagery, commenced one founded on the experiences of his early life. Poor Polidori had some terrible idea about a skull-headed lady … The illustrious also, annoyed by the platitude of prose, speedily relinquished the uncongenial task. I busied myself to think of a story, —a story to rival those which had excited us to this task. One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the temperament and intelligence, but he and her husband Shelley became good “I have found it! What terrified friends in Geneva. They toured the lake visiting places associated with Rousseau in La nouvelle Héloïse, and spent much time together writing and talking. me will terrify others” Legends have accrued around almost every aspect of the Byron-Shelley circle that summer. The Villa Diodati itself, overlooking , was properly Swift as light and as cheering was the idea that broke in upon me. “I have found the Villa Belrive; it was renamed by Byron after the family who then owned it. it! What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre Byron had been drawn to it as a literary tourist: (whose language which had haunted my midnight pillow.” On the morrow I announced that I had echoes throughout Frankenstein from the title page on) was supposed to have thought of a story. visited it on his trip to , although the building itself was not constructed Mary Shelley’s recollection of events that had taken place fourteen years earlier until long after Milton’s death. The “wet, ungenial summer”, as Mary calls it, can be compared with the account given in Polidori’s contemporaneous diary, was an extraordinary weather event caused, unbeknownst to Europeans, by where he records that a conversation took place on the evening of 15 June 1816 the vast eruption of the volcano of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, between himself and “about principles,—whether man Indonesia, in April 1815, which had thrown a pall of volcanic ash around the was to be thought merely an instrument”. Polidori’s diary records that he, world, causing a “”. Byron, and the entire Shelley entourage dined and slept at Villa Diodati on 16 The other literary products of that ghost-story session were Byron’s fragment of June (this is assumed to be the night of the agreement to write ghost stories), a novel, published as an appendix to Mazeppa, and Polidori’s The Vampyre, and that on 17 June “the ghost-stories are begun by all but me.” published at first under Byron’s name. Shelley finished nothing dating directly According to one of her recent biographers: from that evening. The fevered Gothic atmosphere of the story of the novel’s genesis is heightened by the retrospective knowledge that by 1824 all three young By lengthening the lapse of time between Byron’s proposal and her dream- invention of a plot for her ghost story from a few hours to several days, Mary men would be dead: first Polidori by his own hand, next Shelley by drowning, and Shelley inadvertently revealed the extreme anxiety she felt lest she not be able to lastly Byron of marsh fever while fighting for Greek independence. meet Byron’s expectations. (Anne K. Mellor, Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her The Geneva summer was ended when Mary, Percy Bysshe, and Claire left , Routledge 1988, p. 54) Switzerland in September 1816 to return to . After taking Claire to As she mentions elsewhere in her Preface, Mary was “the daughter of two Bath to have Byron’s baby in secret, they moved to Marlow. Completed by May persons of distinguished literary celebrity”: the philosopher 1817, the book was placed with the downwardly-mobile firm of Lackington and his equally radical wife, the feminist , who had died & Co., who published it on 1 January 1818 in an edition of only 500 copies. of postnatal complications resulting from Mary’s birth. In some senses, Mary Lackington’s handwritten account of expenses for printing and publishing Wollstonecraft Godwin was a literary celebrity from the moment of her birth. Frankenstein indicate that six copies were given to the author. By the time of her scandalous elopement and marriage, Mary Shelley knew that On 11 March 1818 the Shelley entourage, including and her great things were expected of her: illegitimate daughter by Byron, Clara Allegra, left England again, this time for My husband … was from the first, very anxious that I should prove myself worthy of Italy. Among other purposes, their intention was to hand over baby Allegra to my parentage, and enrol myself on the page of fame. He was for ever inciting me to Byron at the earliest opportunity. Mary was expecting to meet Byron when they obtain literary reputation. did so and hoped to present this copy of her book in person. But Byron proved Her celebrity among her own circle was, however, far outshone by that of Byron, elusive as he manoeuvred to keep Claire at arm’s length. Thwarted, Mary made who on publication of the first cantos of Childe Harold in March 1812 “woke to her presentation at one remove, sending the book by post. From Milan, Percy find himself famous”. He was a tourist attraction in London, with gawpers Bysshe Shelley wrote to Byron, who was in , on 28 April 1818: lining the pavements outside his curtained windows at 13 Piccadilly Place. You will receive your packets of books. Hunt sends you one he has lately published; Although it was Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont, who first forced herself on and I am commissioned by an old friend of yours to convey “Frankenstein” to you, Byron’s attention, it was Mary who made the more lasting impression when she and to request that if you conjecture the name of the author, that you will regard it met him in April 1816. Byron was well disposed to Mary from the beginning. as a secret. In fact, it is Mrs. S.’s. It has met with considerable success in England; He already knew and admired her father, Godwin, and had given him an but she bids me say, “That she would regard your approbation as a more flattering introduction to the publisher John Murray in 1814; he had also tried, in early testimony of its merit.” 1816, to divert funds to his benefit. He had been one of the first recipients of Shelley’s clandestinely-printed . When Byron met Mary for the first Images opposite, from top to bot- time, he was planning to leave England in a few days, travelling to Geneva via tom: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, by in a giant coach modelled on ’s. It was quickly Richard Rothwell, 1840; George Gor- don Byron, 6th by Richard settled that they would meet again in Geneva, where the Shelleys would take the Westall, 1813; Percy Bysshe Shelley by Villa Montalègre just along the lake shore from the Villa Diodati. , 1819; and John Wil- liam Polidori, by F. G. Gainsford, circa Byron was perhaps too much of a Regency rake to form an immediate close 1816. All paintings courtesy of the friendship with an 18-year-old girl, now matter how impressive he found her National Portrait Gallery, London. 23 December 1817. One of these he sent to Sir on 2 January 1818, “Methinks it is a wonderful work for a girl of nineteen” thereby securing Scott’s favourable review of the novel in the March 1818 issue of Blackwood’s Magazine (with the side-effect of misleading Scott into thinking Byron’s approbation in the form of a letter, if there was such, has not survived. that Percy Bysshe was the book’s true author). On the same day, 2 January, His only direct recorded reference to Frankenstein is in a letter to John Murray, Shelley ordered another ten copies from the publisher, noting that, from Venice, 15 May 1819, in which he corrects various misconceptions Murray I am not at liberty to send any of these or of those already sent except to the has been told about the storytelling competition at the Villa Diodati: personal friends of the Author. None of these are officially connected with any of the Reviews. (Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Frederick L. Jones, ed., 2 vols., Oxford: The story of the agreement to write the Ghost-books is true – but the ladies are Clarendon Press, 1964, I, 590) not Sisters – one is Godwin’s daughter by Mary Wolstonecraft – and the other the present Mrs. Godwin’s daughter by a former husband … Mary Godwin (now Mrs. However, of this total of twenty-five copies that might conceivably have been Shelley) wrote “Frankenstein” – which you have reviewed thinking it Shelley’s – inscribed by Mary Shelley, only one copy other than the present is recorded methinks it is a wonderful work for a Girl of nineteen – not nineteen indeed – at as having survived: Mary’s own copy (three volumes bound in one volume, that time. contemporary tree calf ), with her abandoned revisions for a projected second It is clear that Byron’s respect for Mary had endured, despite the nuisance of edition, which she inscribed in 1823 for Mrs Thomas, one of Trelawny’s English her importuning stepsister. They met again at Venice in August 1818, when friends who had been kind to her in , just prior to her return to England Mary was grief-stricken at the loss of her daughter Clara. Byron gave her his after Shelley’s death by drowning. That copy was purchased by the American Ode to Venice and Mazeppa to transcribe, “probably with the kind intention of financier, banker and art collector J. P. Morgan in 1910 and now resides in the giving her an occupation” (Miranda Seymour, Mary Shelley, John Murray 2000, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (PML 16799). p. 215). In October he offered her his unpublished memoirs to read, a clear sign The Pierpont Morgan Library copy is the only other inscribed copy of the first that he valued her opinion. (She saw nothing in them that was not publishable, edition of Frankenstein that we can trace having appeared in commerce. Unlike according to her later recollection in a letter to Trelawny.) the PML copy, however, the present copy was presented in the year of its They saw more of each other in from October 1821, where Byron led a publication to the most important literary figure of Mary’s acquaintance, her gang of male friends, including Shelley, on shooting and riding expeditions, and her husband’s close friend, the of the age, and the person credited while Mary politely kept his Italian mistress amused in a carriage rolling along by her with first inciting its composition. It is impossible to imagine a finer behind. When a skirmish with a local dragoon turned bloody, Byron took Mary association. with him to the hospital to copy out the various statements that must be made, Provenance: After Byron’s death, in January 1825 the remains of his library— appreciating her coolness in a crisis. consisting of five boxes of books—were shipped back to England. The books They became closer still after Shelley’s death by drowning, when Byron acted were dispersed among Byron’s friends, including his executor John Cam as his executor. He gave her money and, without having real need of such a Hobhouse, and at a three-day sale of his library, beginning 6 July 1827, at R.H. service, invited her to be his fair copyist. “Did Mary fall in love with Byron Evans’s rooms in Pall Mall. This copy was not among the items offered for in the months after Shelley’s death?” Miranda Seymour asks, highlighting a public sale. It was discovered in 2011, without its accompanying second and passage in Mary’s journal where she wondered how Byron “has the power by third volumes, in the library of Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay (1907– his mere presence & voice of exciting such deep & shifting emotions within 1996). Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, Douglas Jay was me”. Mary asked for and was given a lock of Byron’s hair, which she kept in her an influential Labour party politician. Among his personal friends was John dressing case until her death, alongside those of her children, her mother, and (Jock) Murray VI (1909–1993), descendant of John Murray II, Byron’s publisher, Shelley. and successor to him as publisher; he became a salaried partner in the firm in 1933. Jay and Murray were near neighbours in Hampstead and both were keenly After Byron’s death Mary was sought out by his biographers, providing much interested in Byron studies. The inscription was authenticated by the Bodleian firsthand material for Medwin’s and Moore’s lives of the poet. Byron’s figure Library and the book sent by them for exhibition (alongside the original —already strongly present in the brooding, -like character of Victor manuscript of Frankenstein) at the in the exhibition Frankenstein—haunted her later fiction, providing the unmistakable model “Shelley’s Ghost”, 24 February to 24 June 2012. for Raymond in her futuristic novel , much to Claire Clairmont’s annoyance: Condition: Vol. 1 only (of 3), duodecimo (184 × 114 mm). Bound for presentation in contemporary calf, boards ruled in gilt with a double fillet enclosing a leaf-and-flower- When he showed up in her fifth novel, , Claire could stand it no longer. Hearing head roll in blind with floral tools in blind at inside corners, marbled endpapers, green that another book was planned, she dared hope it would not contain “another silk book mark. Inscribed by the author on the binder’s blank immediately preceding Beautified Byron”. “I stick to Frankenstein,” she wrote fiercely, “merely because that vile the half-title; complete with the half-title and final advert leaf. Spine perished (a small spirit does not haunt its pages as it does in all your other , now as Castruccio, fragment with a single blind-tooled oriel preserved in archival paper tipped-in on the now as Raymond, now as Lodore.” (Seymour, p. 354) rear pastedown), inner hinges expertly repaired by James Brockman, boards rubbed On the publication date of Frankenstein, of course, all this lay in the future. and a little stained, tips just worn, a few faint spots and some light offsetting, a tall, As well as the six copies reserved by the publisher for Mary’s personal use, well-margined copy. another nine copies were ordered from Lackington by her husband Shelley on Price: offers in excess of £350,000 Peter Harrington london

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