Born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin on Aug. 30 ... In bad health, Shelley returned to England with her only surviving child, ...

She later recalled hiding behind the sofa as a child to listen to the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge recite The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Mary's life took a dramatic turn at the age of 16. She had ...

Mary’s child was never given a name. Perhaps the late Prof Charles Robinson was closest to the truth when he argued – after studying the original manuscript draft of Frankenstein – that Shelley was ...