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| Note: | Project Gutenberg also has Volume II of this work. See http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37956 Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/lifelettersofmar01marsuoft |
THE LIFE AND LETTERS
OF
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY
I
Photogravure by Annan & Swan
MRS SHELLEY.
After a portrait by Rothwell,
in the possession of Sir Percy F. Shelley, Bart.
THE LIFE & LETTERS
OF
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
BY
Mrs. JULIAN MARSHALL
WITH PORTRAITS AND FACSIMILE
IN TWO VOLUMES
Vol. I
LONDON
RICHARD BENTLEY & SON
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1889
PREFACE
The following biography was undertaken at the request of Sir Percy andLady Shelley, and has been compiled from the MS. journals and letters intheir possession, which were entrusted to me, without reserve, for thispurpose.
The earlier portions of the journal having been placed also at ProfessorDowden’s disposal for his Life of Shelley, it will be found that in myfirst volume many passages indispensable to a life of Mary Shelley havealready appeared, in one form or another, in Professor Dowden’s pages.This fact I have had to ignore, having indeed settled on the quotationsnecessary to my narrative before the Life of Shelley appeared. They aregiven without comment or dilution, just as they occur; where omissions aremade it is in order to avoid repetition, or because the everyday entriesrefer to trivial circumstances uninteresting to the general reader.
[Pg vi]Letters which have previously been published are shortened when they areonly of moderate interest; unpublished letters are given complete whereverpossible.
Those who hope to find in these pages much new circumstantial evidence onthe vexed subject of Shelley’s separation from his first wife will bedisappointed. No contemporary document now exists which puts the casebeyond the reach of argument. Collateral evidence is not wanting, but evenwere this not beyond the scope of the present work it would be wrong onthe strength of it to