The girl behind the monster. Mary Shelley: daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft; lover of Shelley; author of Frankenstein … Helen Edmundson's compelling play explores a pivotal episode in young Mary's life – her meeting and scandalous elopement aged sixteen, with Percy Shelley – and its consequences for her sisters and father. This tumultuous period of private heartbreak, public outrage and family rifts defined Mary's future and influenced her writing. Shortly afterwards at just 18 years old, she anonymously published one of the greatest Gothic horror novels ever written. This is the story behind that story.

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