NOTES

no longer that happy creature

Elizabeth's sudden plunge into a maturity born of despondency was indicated in the last chapter of Volume 1 (I:7:25). Not events per se, but their impact on characters' perceptions give Mary Shelley's novel its dynamic momentum. In this focus on the integrity of mental phenomena for good or ill—concerns likewise at this time governing the productions of both Lord Byron (Manfred) and Percy Bysshe Shelley ("Mont Blanc" and Prometheus Unbound)—one senses Mary Shelley's equal participation in the intellectual vibrancy of that 1816 summer.