BEHIND THE PERFUME: MARY SHELLEY'S UNHALLOWED ART
This is part of a series of posts on the historical figures that are the inspiration for Immortal Perfumes. For more historical figures, check out the rest of the series.
If you’d like more on Mary Shelley, listen to The Strange, Tragic Life of Mary Shelley on Storical Podcast.
“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.”
Daughter of Anarchy
Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft died just 11 days later. Both her mother and her father were intellectuals – Wollstonecraft having written “A Vindication of the Rights of Women,” and her father, William Godwin, an anarchist who wrote “An Enquire Concerning Political Justice.”
Even though she never knew her mother, Mary still had an invested father. And because her father was a popular intellectual, all manner of interesting people frequented the Godwin homestead.
One night, Godwin hosted a salon. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Mary convinced her sister Jane to sneak out of their room to watch the party. They were treated to Samuel Taylor Coleridge reciting his poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
William Godwin owned a book shop and was one of the first publishers of books for children. He would hire his famous friends to write books for his company, The Juvenile Library. The books ranged from retellings of ancient myths to the histories of England and Rome. He had in Mary and his other children a willing audience of voracious readers.
Throughout her childhood, her father encouraged reading and discourse. Mary was well versed in her mother’s works and even spent a fair amount of time laying on Wollstonecraft’s grave as she read or wrote stories. William Godwin was strict and quite severe with his children. His new wife Mary Jane also preferred her own children and clashed frequently with Mary.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
At the time of their meeting, Mary Shelley was 16 to Percy Shelley’s 21. He was a great admirer of William Godwin being an atheist himself who had gotten into trouble at Oxford for publishing a pamphlet with a friend called, “The Necessity of Atheism.” Percy was a gifted poet from a wealthy family. William Godwin encouraged Percy’s patronage, hoping to have a wealthy benefactor. Despite its popularity, the bookshop and publishing house never did well financially.
By all accounts Percy was a pretty boy – tall, dark and handsome with blue eyes. Between that, his poetry and the fact the he shared the ideals of both Godwin and Wollstonecraft, it’s easy to see why Mary became smitten with him. There was just one problem – Percy Shelley was married.
A hopeless romantic, Percy had swept Harriet, a classmate of his sister, off her feet. They had a young child with another on the way, but Harriet was no intellectual and Percy was bored with her. In Mary he saw brilliance, excitement and someone who shared his ideals of free love, equality and adventure.
Mary, Percy and Mary’s half-sister Jane took walks together and often visited Wollstonecraft’s grave where they’d talk poetry, philosophy and travel.
Percy went to Godwin and declared his love for Mary. Despite Godwin’s beliefs in free love and his criticism of marriage, Godwin was furious and told Percy he could never see Mary again. He then shut Mary into the upstairs schoolroom of their bookshop.
Confused by her father’s reaction and hopelessly in love, Mary entrusted Jane to deliver letters to her lover. Percy, for his part told Harriet that he was done with her.
Not exactly the picture of calm, Percy then obtained a bottle of laudanum, took a giant swig and then frantically broke into Mary’s tower. He handed her the bottle and told her to take the rest of its contents and then pulled out a gun telling her that he would shoot himself so they could be together in death, Romeo and Juliet style. She firmly told Percy she would not drink the laudanum but would “be ever faithful” to him if he would please calm down.
Despite all of this, Mary, through letters smuggled by a servant, made a plan to run away with Percy. She left her father a note and stole out of the house to a waiting carriage at 5am.
They stole away to France and Switzerland. Despite Percy’s family’s wealth – Percy was a notorious spendthrift and constantly broke. He repeatedly took post-obit loans which were loans you could take out if you stood to inherit a large estate or sum of money.
They traveled and changed rooms repeatedly and burned through the money within 6 weeks. During this time, they entertained themselves reading from a travelogue Wollstonecraft had written – pleased with themselves for embarking on such a grand adventure. They also took in the sights including the ruins of Frankenstein castle in Germany. Fun fact about that castle – an alchemist named Johann Konrad Dippel was born there in 1673 and had spent his life searching for a potion to grant immortality – experimenting on dead animals in the process.
The Year Without a Summer
Once back in England, Mary and Percy were social pariahs. But they did have a friend in Lord Byron who was a fan of Percy’s poetry and conveniently hooking up with Mary’s younger sister Claire.
In 1815, a volcano erupted in Indonesia. It caused a volcanic winter that affected the climate of the whole globe and led many to dub 1816 the year without a summer. The weather over Europe was cool and rainy with gloomy overcast clouds.
Claire, desperate to keep the interest of Lord Byron, arranged (without Byron’s knowledge or consent) for Mary, Percy, and herself to meet up with him at his villa on Lake Geneva. By this point, Byron had tired of Claire, but she was in love and wouldn’t take no for an answer. She arranged for their party to run into Byron on the beach. Lucky for Claire, Percy and Byron took to each other immediately and Byron was also intrigued by Mary and her intellect.
They rented rooms near Byron’s villa and spent much of the summer with him and his young doctor friend John Polidori. The group spent many hours together talking poetry and craft as well as taking time to see the villages and castles nearby. They also spent evenings in lively conversations about philosophy, the nature of the soul and astounding advancements in science and medicine.
One stormy night, the friends gathered at Byron’s villa. At this point they had spent many weeks as constant companions and a sense of boredom started to grow – especially since they were so frequently cooped up indoors due to such terrible weather.
Byron found a book of ghost stories which the group listened to by the fire. In a moment of excitement, Byron proposed that they have a writing competition. Each member of their party would write a ghost story to share with the group and decide the winner based on whose story was most bone-chilling.
The idea thrilled Mary who needed an intellectual endeavor to occupy her brain. The only problem – writer’s block. It took her several weeks before she had the spark of an idea. In that time, Percy and Byron had given up on the endeavor preferring the short form of poetry and Polidori wrote a story called, “The Vampire,” which was later published.
Castles, alchemists, death, grief. All of her experiences swirled together until one night when, plagued by the insomnia of an active mind, she saw a vision. She later wrote, “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life.”
And thus, Frankenstein was born. But for Mary, this creative burst couldn’t protect her from more tragedy.
First, Claire announced that she was pregnant with Byron’s child. Byron was furious and while he agreed to the baby and raise her, he wanted nothing to do with Claire which left her devastated and even more needy.
Then, news came that her elder sister Fanny had killed herself – a crime at this time in history that put immense shame on a family. Soon after Fanny’s death, they received word that Percy’s wife Harriet had died under mysterious circumstances – pregnant and drowned.
This sad news did lead to another open door however – with Harriet dead, Mary and Percy could marry. Despite their views on marriage they each had something to gain – she the love and acceptance of her father and Percy wanted to appear responsible to the courts to gain custody over his children with Harriet.
Mary became a Shelley on Dec. 30 1816.
She gave birth to a daughter, Clara in September 1817. In November of that year, she received word that after multiple rejections, Frankenstein, her monstrous creation, had found a publisher.
Fame and Tragedy
While Frankenstein’s acceptance was joyful news, there was much stress in the Shelley household. Lord Byron, who had disappeared from their lives, wanted them to bring baby Allegra – his daughter with Claire, to Italy. Mary’s father was again demanding money despite the fact that she and Percy were having money troubles of their own. Percy was also prone to hypochondria and was increasingly nervous and erratic.
They continued with their nomadic lifestyle and traveled throughout Italy. But tragedy had a way of finding Mary. Baby Clara who was just a year old died in Mary’s arms. The next year, her son William would die at just five years old. Mary and Percy were grief stricken and each found solace in their writing. Mary wrote a short novel called Mathilda and various short stories. Lord Byron asked her to copy his poems for publication hoping to give her a task to help distract from her grief. The ultimate distraction and happiness came in November 1819 with the birth of her fourth child, Percy Florence.
Over the next few years the family continued with their travel and made all manner of new friends. Lord Byron remained a friend to the Shelley’s and it was on Lord Byron’s boat, the Don Juan, that one final tragedy would unfold.
Percy Shelley and a group of friends had sailed into a storm. For more than a week, no one had seen or heard from the Don Juan until three bodies washed ashore. One of the corpses was so decomposed they could only identify it because of the book of poems in the jacket pocket. Mary’s beloved Percy Shelley was dead at age 29. Mary was a widow at 25 and would never give her heart to another.
The bodies were cremated on the beach save for the heart of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary wrapped the heart in a silk kerchief with pieces of Percy’s poetry and kept it in her writing desk for the rest of her life.
Through all the grief and tragedy she had experienced, Mary persevered and went on to live to her 50s. In that time, she continued to move frequently and write.
Percy Shelley hadn’t achieved much fame during his life but Mary made it her personal mission to keep her husband’s legacy alive. She edited volumes of his work for publication and it was through her determination that Percy Bysshe Shelley become one of the most celebrated of the romantic era poets.
Mary died on February 1 1851. Her son Percy Florence was there at her side. When Percy Florence died in 1889, he was buried with the ashes of his father’s heart.
Unhallowed Art is the perfume I created that was inspired by Mary Shelley’s tragic life. Her’s was one marked by grief, love, and monstrousness. To encapsulate these feelings as well as the memory of moss and cemeteries, this perfume blend includes notes of tonka bean, smoke, vegan musk, oud, rose, violet, and jasmine.