Years 1825-1835

A Chronology of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: 1825-1835

|1825 |1826 |1827 | |1828 |1829 |1830 |1831 |1832 |1833 |1834 |1835 |

1825	Jan	MWS begins her friendship with Mary Diana Dods, who writes under the pseudonym "David Lyndsay."
	Feb	MWS probably finished a first draft of The Last Man. By November, 1825, she is copying the manuscript.
	25 Jun	MWS refuses a marriage proposal from American actor, playwright, and manager John Howard Payne.
1826	23 Jan	The Last Man(London: Henry Colburn), "By the Author of Frankenstein," is published in three volumes. Reviews of the novel. Romantic Circles Electronic Edition of The Last Man (Ed. Steven E. Jones).
	10 Jun	Le Monstre et le magicien, by Jean Toussaint Merle and Antoine Nicolas Beraud, opens in Paris at the Théàtre de la Porte Saint-Martin for a run of 96 performances. A translation by James Kerr opens at the New Royal West London Theatre on 9 October for an estimated run of four performances.
	11 Jun	"Defense of Velluti," a letter that MWS signs "Anglo Italicus," appears in the Examiner, no. 958, 372-41.
	3 Jul	The Man and The Monster; or The Fate of Frankenstein, by Henry M. Milner, opens at the Royal Coberg Theatre for a run of eight performances.
	17 Jul	MWS meets Thomas Moore and agrees to help him compose a biography of Lord Byron. She works on this project off and on over the next few years, and The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life is published in 1830.
	[5] Aug-3 Sep	MWS spends a month at Brighton with Jane Williams.
	14 Sep	Charles Bysshe Shelley, the son of PBS and Harriet Shelley, dies, making Percy Florence heir apparent to the baronetcy.
	Oct	"The English in Italy," MWS's review of Lord Normanby's The English in Italy, Continental Adventures, a Novel, and Anna Browmwell Jameson's Diary of an Ennuyee, appears in the Westminster Review, VI, 325-41.
	Dec	"A Visit to Brighton," inspired by MWS's August journey, appears in the London Magazine, n.s. VI, 460-66.
1827	Feb	MWS establishes a friendship with Isabel, Julia, and Rosa Robinson during the first of many visits to the Robinson's Park Cottage in Paddington. Isabel Robinson will later "marry" Mary Diana Dods, who assumes the identity of "Sholto Douglas."
	Spring	Jane Williams and Thomas Hogg begin living as a married couple. Afterwards, she calls herself Jane Williams Hogg, even though she is still legally married to her first husband.
	May	Sir Timothy increases Percy Florence's allowance to £250.
	13 Jul	MWS records in her journal her discovery of Jane Williams Hogg's disloyalty. Isabel Robinson had informed MWS of the slanderous stories Jane has been spreading that vilified MWS as a cold, unfeeling wife. MWS does not confront her until 11 February 1828.
	[24] Jul	MWS and Percy Florence join Isabel Robinson and her illegitimate child in Sompting. They relocate to Arundel on 3 September, and Mary Diana Dods, now posing as Sholto Douglas, joins them. With the help of John Howard Payne, MWS assists the Douglases in getting the passports they need to elope to Paris.
	26 Sep	MWS writes in a letter to Godwin that she is writing each morning; the work is presumably The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck. She writes the novel over the next two years, soliciting information from Godwin, John Murray, Prosper Mérimée, Thomas Crofton Croker, and Sir Walter Scott.
	[25] Oct	MWS returns to London and moves into 51 George Street, Portman Square.
1828	25 Mar	Percy Florence enters Edward Slater's Gentlemen's Academy, Church Street, Kensington.
	11 Apr	MWS visits the Douglases in Paris. She contracts smallpox soon after her arrival. During her visit, she meets Prosper Mérimée and General Layfayette.
	26 May	MWS returns to England, remaining in Dover and Hastings through July to recover from her smallpox.
	9 Aug	MWS visits the Robinsons in Park Cottage, Paddington, remaining there throughout most of the year.
	[Nov/Dec]	Two of MWS's stories are published anonymously in the Keepsake for MDCCCXXIX: "The Sisters of Albano" (80-100) and "Ferdinando Eboli: A Tale" (195-218). E-text for Ferdinando Eboli (from The Last Man Romantic Circles Electronic Edition).
	[24] Dec	MWS moves to 4 Oxford Terrace, Edgewater Road; Claire Clairmont resides with her until April, 1829.
1829	Jan	"Illyrian Poems--Feudal Scenes," MWS's review of Prosper Mérimée's La Guzla, ou Choir de Poesies Illyriques recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Croatie et l'Herzegowine; and La Jacquerie; Feudal Scenes, followed by the Family of Carvajal, a Drama, is published in the Westminster Review, X, 71-81.
	13 May	MWS moves to 33 Somerset Street, Portman Square.
	1 Jun	Sir Timothy increases Percy Florence's allowance to £300.
	Jul	MWS's review, "Modern Italy," appears in the Westminster Review, II, 127-140.
	Oct	MWS's review, "Loves of the Poets," appears in the Westminster Review, XI, 472-77.
	Nov-Dec	MWS copies and revises Perkin Warbeck.
	[Nov/Dec]	Three stories by "The Author of Frankenstein" appear in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX: "The Mourner" (71-97), "The Evil Eye" (150-75), and "The False Rhyme" (265-68) E-texts for The Mourner and The False Rhyme (from The Last Man Romantic Circles Electronic Edition).
	Dec	The Paris Galignani edition of The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats, a pirated work edited by Cyrus Redding and including biographical sketches of the poets, is published. MWS had provided Redding with information on PBS earlier that year.
1830	May	MWS's review of William Godwin's Cloudesley appears in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, XXVIII, 711-16.
	13 May	The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley) is published in three volumes.
	July	MWS and Percy Florence spend two weeks at Southend.
	Oct	A review, believed to be by MWS, of Mérimée's 1572 Chronique du Temps de Charles IX appears in the Westminster Review, XIII, 495-502.
	[Nov/Dec]	Two stories by "The Author of Frankenstein" appear in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI : "Transformation" (18-39) and "The Swiss Peasant" (121-46). In addition, three poems in this volume have also been attributed to her, although only the first is signed "Mary W. Shelley": "Absence"(22), "Dirge" (85), and "A Night Scene" (147-48).
1831		MWS anonymously edits and arranges publication for Edward Trelawny's memoirs, Adventures of a Younger Son (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley).
	1 Apr	William Godwin's novel Caleb Williams is reissued in a one- volume edition by Colburn and Bentley. MWS writes a biographical sketch, "Memoirs of William Godwin" (iii-xiii).
	31 Oct	The 1831 edition of Frankenstein (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley) is published as part of Bentley's Standard Novels. the title page names "Mary W. Shelley" as the author. This one-volume version includes several revisions, although she claims, in a new Introduction, that they are "confined to such parts as are mere adjuncts to the story, leaving the core and substance of it untouched."
	[Nov/Dec]	"The Dream," a story by "The Author of Frankenstein," appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXII (22-38).
	[Nov/Dec]	Proserpine, a Mythological Drama in Two Acts, which MWS had written in 1820, is published in The Winter's Wreath for 1832 (1-20).
1832	Jan	MWS's review of James Fenimore Cooper's The Bravo appears in the Westminster Review, XVI 180-92. Because the journal refuses to publish her review of Edward Bulwer's Eugene Aram, she stops publishing her work in the Review.
	[15] Jun	MWS and Percy Florence spend three months in Sandgate, where they are joined by Trelawny and his daughter Julia. MWS and Percy Florence return to Somerset Street on 8 October.
	21 Jul-25 Aug	Thomas Medwin publishes his "Memoirs of Shelley" in the Athenæum; several of the installments mention MWS.
	Aug/Sep	"The Pole," a story written by Claire, edited by MWS, and erroneously attributed to "The Author of Frankenstein," appears in the August and September Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée.
	8 Sep	William Godwin, Jr., MWS's half brother, dies of cholera.
	29 Sep	Percy Florence enters boarding school at Harrow.
	[Nov/Dec]	MWS publishes a poem in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIII : "Stanzas" ("I must forget thy dark eyes' love fraught gaze") (52). The issue also contains two stories by "The Author of Frankenstein": "The Brother and Sister: An Italian Story" (105-41) and "The Invisible Girl" (210-27).
1833		"The Smuggler and His Family," by "Mrs. Shelley" appears in Original Compositions in Prose and Verse(27-53).
	May	MWS moves to Harrow so Percy Florence can become a day-student and reduce the expense of his schooling.
	[Nov/Dec]	"The Mortal Immortal," by "The Author of Frankenstein," appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIV (71-87). Romantic Circles Electronic Edition of "The Mortal Immortal" (Ed. Michael Eberle-Sinatra)
1834	[Jan]	Edward Moxon writes MWS to propose an edition of PBS's works. She responds on 22 January that when "family reasons" no longer hinder her, she plans to republish her late husband's poems, along with some letters and prose. She also states that she would not write a biographical sketch of PBS, but might wish to select a person to do so.
	Apr	The printer misplaces thirty-six pages from Volume 3 of Lodore. MWS works into early June rewriting them.
	[Nov/Dec]	"The Trial of Love," by "The Author of Frankenstein," appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXV (70-86).
		"The Elder Son," by "Mrs. Shelley," appears in Heath's Book of Beauty. 1835 (83-123).
1835	Feb	Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol 1 (of 3) (London: Longman, Orme, Brown [etc.]), is published as part of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner.
	7 Apr	Lodore (London: Richard Bentley) is published in three volumes and attributed to "The Author of 'Frankenstein.'"
	[Oct]	Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol 2 (London: Longman, Orme, Brown [etc.]) is published.
	[8] Nov	MWS writes about Falkner to Maria Gisborne.