The following list is based on W. H. Lyles's Mary Shelley: An Annotated Bibliography and Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings. It lists first editions of works authored by Mary Shelley, except where indicated.
Title |
Authors |
First publication |
Notes |
Online text |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol. I |
Mary Shelley and James Montgomery |
Vol. 86 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1835. |
Authorship is uncertain regarding some of the biographies in the volume. According to Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings, Mary Shelley wrote the following lives: Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo de'Medici, Marsiglio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Angelo Poliziano, Bernardo Pulci, Luca Pulci, Luigi Pulci, Cieco Da Ferrara, Burchiello, Bojardo, Berni, Machiavelli.[24] |
Internet Archive |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol. II |
Mary Shelley, James Montgomery, and Sir David Brewster |
Vol. 87 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1835. |
Authorship is uncertain regarding some of the biographies in the volume. According to Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings, Mary Shelley wrote the following lives: Guicciardini, Vittoria Colonna, Guarini, Chiabrera, Tassoni, Marini, Filicaja, Metastasio, Goldoni, Alfieri, Monti, Ugo Foscolo.[25] |
Internet Archive |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol. III |
Mary Shelley [and others] |
Vol. 88 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1837. |
According to Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings, Mary Shelley wrote the biographies of: Boscan, Garcilaso de la Vega, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Luis de Leon, Herrera, Saa de Miranda, Jorge de Montemayor, Castillejo, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Vicente Espinel, Estaban de Villegas, Góngora, Quevedo, Calderón, Ribeyro, Gil Vicente, Ferreira, Camoens.[26] |
Internet Archive |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, Vol. I |
Mary Shelley [and others] |
Vol. 102 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1838. |
According to Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings, Mary Shelley wrote the following biographies: Montaigne, Corneille, Rouchefoucauld,[27] Molière, Pascal, Madame de Sévigné, Boileau, Racine, Fénélon.[28] |
Internet Archive |
Lives of the most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, Vol. II |
Mary Shelley |
Vol. 103 of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia). London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman; and John Taylor, 1839. |
This volume contains the following biographies: Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, Mirabeau, Madame Roland, Madame de Stael.[29] |
Internet Archive |
Life of William Godwin |
Mary Shelley |
Unfinished and unpublished; Edited from the manuscripts in the Abinger Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford by Pamela Clemit in 'Literary Lives,' Vol. 4, 3-113. |
|
|
Poem |
First publication |
Manuscript |
Attribution |
Composition date |
"Absence; 'Ah! he is gone—and I alone!—'" |
The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and Jennings and Chaplin, 1830. |
British Library, Ashley MS A 4023, fair copy in MS's handwriting[30] |
|
|
"A Dirge; 'This morn, thy gallant bark, love'" |
The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and Jennings and Chaplin, 1830. |
Earliest extant manuscript at Harvard University fMS. Eng. 822, dated November 1827; second manuscript in a letter MS wrote to Maria Gisborne on 11 June 1835[31] |
|
November 1827 and 11 June 1835 |
"A Night Scene; 'I see thee not, my gentlest Isabel'" |
The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and Jennings and Chaplin, 1830. |
|
Published anonymously in the Keepsake, first attributed by Nitchie and confirmed by Palacio through a sales catalogue listing an autograph poem called "A Night Scene"[32] |
|
"Song; 'When I'm no more, this harp that rings'" |
The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., and Jennings and Chaplin, 1830. |
|
This poem is included in Lyles's bibliography but not in the more recent Markley edition of MS's works. |
|
"The Death of Love" |
Bennett, Betty T. "Newly Uncovered Letters and Poems by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley". Keats-Shelley Journal 46 (1997): 51–74. |
The only surviving manuscript, dated 19 November 1831, is found in an autograph album owned by Birkbeck, University of London and entitled "Mrs. G. Birkbeck / ALBUM / September, MDCCCXXV".[33] |
This poem is listed in Markley but not in Lyles. |
19 November 1831 |
"To Love in Solitude and Mystery" |
The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXII. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1832. |
Pforzheimer Collection, New York Public Library |
Published anonymously. Attribution was first suggested by Emily W. Sunstein and confirmed in Bennett, Betty T. "Newly Uncovered Letters and Poems by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley". Keats-Shelley Journal 46 (1997): 51–74.[34] This poem is included in Markley's edition of MS's works but not in Lyles's bibliography. |
|
"I Must Forget Thy Dark Eyes' Love-Fraught Gaze" |
The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXII. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1832. |
Berg Collection, New York Public Library |
Published anonymously. Attributed by Emily Sunstein.[35] This poem is included in Markley's edition of MS's works but not in Lyles's bibliography. |
|
"Ode to Ignorance; 'Hail, Ignorance! majestic queen!'" |
The Metropolitan Magazine 9 (1834): 29–31. |
|
This poem is included in Lyles's bibliography but not in the more recent Markley edition of MS's works. |
|
"Fame" |
The Drawing-Room Scrap-Book. 1835. 1834. |
|
This poem is included in Lyles's bibliography but not in the more recent Markley edition of MS's works. |
|
"How like a star you rose upon my life" |
The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX. Ed. Frederick Mansel Reynolds. London: Published for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans/Paris: Delloy and Co., 1838. |
|
|
|
"To the Death; 'O, Come to me in dreams, my love'" |
The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX. Ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1839. |
Collection of Samuel Loveman |
|
15 December 1834 |
"Oh Listen While I sing to Thee," Canzonet, With Accompaniment for the Harp or Piano Forte, Composed and Inscribed to his Friend Berry King, Esqr. by Henry Hugh Pearson, Professor of Music in the University of Edinburgh |
London: D'Almaine and Co. [c.1842][36] |
Bodleian Library and British Library |
|
12 March 1838 |
The Choice. a Poem on Shelley's Death by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley |
Ed. Harry Buxton Forman. London: Printed for the Editor for Private Distribution, 1876. |
Two versions of the poem exist: One is the Forman edition, drawn from a manuscript sent to Forman, and the other is in MS's journal (Ab. Dep. 311/4, pp. 100–06).[37] |
|
May – July 1823 |
"On Reading Wordsworth's Lines on Peel [sic] Castle; 'It is with me, as erst with you" |
Grylls, Rosalie Glynn. Mary Shelley: A Biography. London: Oxford University Press, 1938. |
Two manuscripts survive, both dated 8 December 1825: Ab. Dep. c. 516 and Ab. Dep. d. 311/4. The second manuscript version was published in Grylls.[38] |
|
8 December 1825 |
"Fragment; (To Jane with the Last [Man]) 'Tribute for thee, dear solace of my life'" |
Grylls, Rosalie Glynn. Mary Shelley: A Biography. London: Oxford University Press, 1938. |
Ab. Dep. d. 311/4, p. 109 |
|
c. 23 January 1826 |
"Tempo e' piu di Morire/Io ho tardato piu ch' i' non vorrei: 'Sadly borne across the waves'" |
Ed. Elizabeth Nitchie. Mary Shelley: Author of Frankenstein. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953. |
Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, f. 101 |
|
1833 |
"La Vida es sueño; 'The tide of Time was at my feet'" |
1833 version published by Jean de Palacio in 1969; 1834 version published in Ed. Elizabeth Nitchie. Mary Shelley: Author of Frankenstein. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953. |
Personal collection of Jean de Palacio and Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, f. 101 |
|
26 July 1833 and 1834 |
"Fair Italy! Still Shines Thy Sun as Bright" |
Bennett, Betty T. "Newly Uncovered Letters and Poems by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley". Keats-Shelley Journal 46 (1997): 51–74. |
Fales Manuscript Collection, Fales Library, New York University |
This poem is included in Markley's edition of MS's works but not in Lyles's bibliography. |
10 September 1833 |
Title |
Composition date |
Manuscript |
Summary |
Notes |
"History of the Jews" |
c. 1812–16 |
Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 22-37 |
This fragment is written in MS's handwriting and "draws on particularly passages in the Old Testament books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua and Judges and follows a common 'Jacobin' mode in which the veracity of the Old Testament is disproved by foregrounding absurdities and inconsistencies in the narrative, the ultimate aim being to undermine the tenets of Christianity by taking apart the credibility of its foundation in the Hebrew scriptures".[39] Jane Blumberg has attributed it to MS (but with a strong influence from PBS). Others believe it to be a translation of an unknown French anti-clerical work. It could also be a dictated work.[40] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Theseus" |
1815? |
Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 20-1 |
This fragment describes Theseus, drawing on Plutarch's Parallel Lives.[41] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Cyrus" |
1815? |
Ab. Dep. c. 477/1, f.63 and Ab. Dep. c. 534/1, f. 95 |
This fragment is a brief life of Cyrus the Great of Persia and a summary of the achievements of ancient Chaldea, India, and Egypt.[42] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Address to the Duchess of Angoulême" |
c. 1815–16 |
Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, f. 92-93 |
This is a fragment written in MS's handwriting of an "imaginary address from a dead speaker in the manner of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead".[43] The addressee is Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Duchess d'Angoulême, the only surviving child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the leader of an Ultra-Royalist party following Napoleon's defeat. The speaker in Mary I of England. MS may have written this work herself, may have taken this work in dictation from PBS, or the two may have authored it together.[44] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Correspondence of Louis XVI" |
1816 |
Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 1-19 |
This fragment is a partial translation of Correspondance politique et confidentielle inédite de Louis XIV, Avec ses frères, et plusieurs personnes célèbres, pendant les dernières années de son règne, et jusqu'à sa mort, avec des observations par Hélene-Maria Williams. 2 vols. Paris: Debray, 1803.[45] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Cupid and Psyche" |
November 1817 |
Library of Congress MSS 13,290, pp. 35-65 and Bodleian MS Shelley adds. e. 2 |
This fragment is a partial translation of the tale of "Cupid and Psyche" from Apuleius's Golden Ass.[46] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Samuel" |
1819-20 |
Ab. Dep. e. 274, pp. 3-24 |
This fragment is an abridgement of the first fifteen chapters of the 1 Samuel. It may be modelled on William Godwin's children's book Bible Stories (1802).[47] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"The Necessity of a Belief in the Heathen Mythology to a Christian" |
1820 |
Ab. Dep. e. 274, pp. 102 rev.-97 rev., 92 rev. |
This fragment is a "gathering of notes (with touches of dry wit) towards an argumentative essay".[48] According to Markley, "its purpose appears strategic: to undermine the claims of Judaeo-Christian scriptures in order to assert the beauty and superior morality of classical myth".[49] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Cry of War to the Greeks" |
2–5 April 1821 |
Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, ff. 91, 34 |
This fragment is an unfinished rough draft translation of the Greek patriot and war-leader's Alexander Ypsilanti's call to arms. The finished copy was sent to London to accompany pro-Greek newspaper articles, but has disappeared. The translation is a collaborative effort between MS and PBS.[50] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Life of Shelley" |
10 February 1823, 2 March 1823, and 25 March 1823 |
Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5 ff. 113-118 |
This fragment "presents a vivid portrait of Mary Shelley in the early stages of her widowhood...The fragments include an assessment of [Percy Bysshe Shelley's] personality and character and some anecdotes of his boyhood found nowhere else."[51] |
This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"God of the Best the Brightest" |
30 December 1824 and 6 January 1825 |
Pierpont Morgan Library, MA 406 |
This poetic fragment may be a quotation from another writer or it may be by MS.[52] |
|
"Alas I weep my life away" |
14 August 1831 |
Journal V, Ab. Dep. d. 311/5 |
This poetic fragment may be a quotation from another writer or it may be by MS.[53] |
|
" "Struggle no more, my Soul with the sad chains" |
16 August 1831 |
Journal V, Ab. Dep. d. 311/5 |
This poetic fragment may be a quotation from another writer or it may be by MS.[54] |
|
"Cecil" |
1844 |
Ab. Dep. 3. 229, pp. 1-32 |
"Cecil" is a partial translation of Ida Hahn-Hahn's German novel of that name. |
Among the last known writing projects undertaken by Mary Shelley.[55] This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
"Inez de Medina" |
1848-50 |
Ab. Dep. c. 767/3, pp. 129-46, 147-164 |
This fragment is a partial translation of the novel Inez de Medina by Laura Galloni.[56] |
This is the last known work-in-progress by Mary Shelley.[57] This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |