Mary Shelley (4½ Stars)

This is the story of Mary Shelley, the young women who wrote the groundbreaking novel "Frankenstein". Maybe I should call her a girl, because she was only 18 at the time when it was published. I'm not using the word "girl" derogatively, I'm using it to emphasise the greatness of her achievement at such a young age.

The first edition of "Frankenstein" was published anonymously. The main reason was that the publishers didn't believe that a girl Mary's age could have written such a book. They thought it must have been written by her husband, the poet Percy Shelley. He denied authorship, so it was published without naming the author. The second edition named Mary Shelley as the author.

Mary Shelley was born as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in 1797. Her mother was the famous feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, who died in childbirth. Her father was William Godwin, who's described in the film as a poet, but from my understanding he was a philosopher who advocated anarchy. After remarrying he opened a bookstore in London which did badly, so the family was always struggling with poverty. William Godwin's new wife had a daughter called Claire, who Mary treated as if she were her real sister. (Claire was Mary's step-sister, not her half-sister).

At 16 Mary met the poet Percy Shelley, who was five years older than her. They fell in love and she had a baby from him before finding out that he was already married. Percy said that he thought monogamy was an artificial constraint imposed by society. These are words repeated by polyamorists today, but if Percy had been so certain of his principles he would have been honest with her from the start. He  finally married Mary after his wife committed suicide. William Godwin barred Percy from his house, so Percy rented a small apartment that he shared with Mary and Claire. Mary spent the evenings writing while Percy went out to parties with Claire. The film hints that they were intimate with one another. Mary in no way approved of her husband's attitudes towards fidelity.

A significant event in the film is a summer that Percy, Mary and Claire spent at Lord Byron's mansion in Geneva. Percy and Byron were close friends and spent much time drinking together. Claire fell in love with Byron, and after he made her pregnant she expected him to marry her, but Byron insulted her lack of intelligence and called her one of his biggest mistakes. Byron was more interested in Mary because of her intellect, but she was repulsed by his lifestyle. The important thing that came out of this time together is that Byron said that all his friends should write a ghost story, and he would decide which was best. What he meant by "ghost story" was a horror story in general. This was the inspiration for Mary Shelley to write "Frankenstein".

Even though the novel is about a monster, many autobiographical elements can be found in the story. Mary was portraying her own suffering as an outcast, describing her feelings in the words of the monster.

This is a beautiful, emotional film. It gives me the background of the novel which I read and loved in my early years.