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| Mary Shelley |
A TIMELY BOOK AND A LOOK BACK AT ONE OF THE SCARIEST CREATURES AN AUTHOR INVENTED: FRANKENSTEIN!
BOOK REVIEW:
THE
DETERMINED HEART: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein – by Antoinette
May. Published by Lake
Union
I
received a copy to read through the Netgalley program in exchange for an honest
and unbiased review which I am happy to share now.
Other books by this author:
Pilot’s Wife
The Sacred Well
The Yucatan :
A Guide to the Land
of Maya
Haunted Houses of California
I would give this
book Five
Stars for its excellent blend of fact and fiction. This book tells the
story of Mary Shelley most famous as the author of Frankenstein. In this new
book just out, Mary Godwin’s life had many upheavals, but one of the most
telling was a move from her home in a small suburb to the city of London .
Mary’s life was definitely daring and
scary even before her efforts to write Frankenstein. The author describes
one such incident in a boat: “Mary, Bysshe, and Claire huddled together in the
center, hoping their combined weight would maintain balance . . .”
The publisher’s description states The Determined Heart reveals the life
of Mary Shelley in a story of love and obsession, betrayal and redemption.
It describes her
early beginnings and the people who most inspired her in life. She was born the
daughter of political philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary
Wollstonecraft, “Mary Shelley had an unconventional childhood populated with
the most talented and eccentric personalities of the time. After losing her
mother at an early age, she finds herself in constant conflict with a resentful
stepmother and a jealous stepsister. When she meets the Romantic poet Percy
Bysshe Shelley, she falls deeply in love and they elope with disastrous
consequences. Soon she finds herself destitute and embroiled in a torturous
love triangle as Percy takes Mary’s stepsister as a lover. Over the next
several years, Mary struggles to write while she and Percy face ostracism,
constant debt, and the heartbreaking deaths of three children. Ultimately, she
achieves great acclaim for Frankenstein, but at what cost?”
Antoinette May is
an award-winning travel writer specializing in Mexico ;
May divides her time between Palo Alto
and the Sierra foothills.
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| early version of Frankenstein |
