Excellent piece! I think we might note that Mary and Percy were both reading the writings of Mary’s late mother, which included some rather liberal ideas about marriage. I, too, mourned for Harriet when I first learned of her way back, Percy was a bit of a cad. His ideas on free love often came down to just his own sense of freedom from responsibility. I have an excellent biography of Godwin which sheds a good deal of light on these times, I just need to lay my eyes on it to remember which. It’s lovely to see an article so thoughtfully and artfully done concerning literary history.
The best one I have is The Godwins and the Shelley’s by William St. Clair. The author had access to many documents from private and institutional sources not readily available to the public, which is cool. St. Clair was a bit, well, pompous about this but he really put things together well.
Yes to all of this. I acknowledge the importance of the literary pieces that were so important to Mary as a young woman, but that does not mean that we cannot feel sympathy and even a bit of anger for what happened to Harriet. For doing so is only devaluing her further. Does the existence of a book or Percy’s “modern” view mean she was so insignificant that she could be treated thusly? Why can we not see both sides? Why can some people not simply acknowledge that a soul suffered due to these choices and was lost to us early? It would not have erased the words of Wollstonecraft, but it would have maintained Harriet’s dignity. That is what I mourn. Thank you for your thoughtful comment, friend 🤍🍂 I hope you’re having a wonderful October!
I did not know anything at all about Harriet. She had been effectively erased from my education. Shelley and Mary were the two who were eternally and indivisibly together in my mind. So, it just goes to show that history is, as I have always maintained, a matter of opinion and often manipulation. Thank you for this enlightening post.,
i think i was aware that shelley had been married before, but i certainly didn’t know all the heartbreaking details. harriet certainly deserved the devotion of her husband instead of his adultery. how utterly sad :(
Honestly, yes - the times might change all we wish, but no human being deserves to be treated like that, as if she was all of a sudden completely insignificant, to the point where she lost the battle with her own grief. That is what I mourn :(
Interesting read. At first i thought she was mary’s sister or sime relative for some reason 😂 but regarding mary’s role, it is entirely possible that mary shelley was somewhat gaslit about it all. Or even groomed by percy. Keep in mind, mary shelley was still a teenager and percy was a married man. I feel like mary might have very little to do with harriet’s story. Percy should have known better. He was probably playing with two women in his life. One a wife of his two children, and the other a malleable teenager. Mary was part of the romantic movement and that might have influenced her to let go of any reasoning and follow her heart more, not knowing she’s being manipulated by percy. This is my two cents though, i could be wrong.
Harriet was mentioned, very much in passing in a lecture during my literature degree, but I had no idea of the whole sad story. Yet another example of inconvenient women being painted out of history.
I do wonder, if Percy hadn’t died at such a young age, if his love for Mary would have also faded and she’d be left behind. She was probably better equipped (thanks to her mother) with how to survive it but the heart would still feel terrible things.
I find it interesting you dwell on the pathos of Harriett at your tea talk with Mary and never mention Mary’s mother., Wollestonecraft. Wollestonecraft was a feminist ahead of her time who frankly lived and died in an unconventional life style. Vindication of the Rights of Women, her legacy to her infant daughter was augmented by Godwin’s memoir of living with this feminist author. Undoubtedly Shelley read both works as she grew up in Godwins household. With her parental intellectualism at play in her thoughts from formative years, it is hardly surprising she herself perhaps felt few qualms about her relationship with a married man. What were her views on marriage? Did she feel sympathy to the abandoned wife or pity that Harriett fell victim to the institution she herself rejected? Was Harriett the victim of this group, or the archaic laws of marriage at the time that denied her a respectable divorce and alimony? I am not fascinated by what happened to Harriett. I pity her but when her husband withdrew from the marriage, it did not make Mary culpable in the act or the outcome. Harriett had the misfortune to marry a man of questing thought, one who would not be bound by the mores of their society. Perhaps if she had been less restricted by conventional views, Harriett could have remained with her children as part of the commune that grew up around this group of poet and thinkers. We do not know. That is what I would have talked about with Mary.
Interesting! Yes Mary and Percy were reading Wollstonecraft before they went away together. Of course Harriett was an institutional/cultural victim, but I still think of Percy as a bit of a cad.
Excellent piece! I think we might note that Mary and Percy were both reading the writings of Mary’s late mother, which included some rather liberal ideas about marriage. I, too, mourned for Harriet when I first learned of her way back, Percy was a bit of a cad. His ideas on free love often came down to just his own sense of freedom from responsibility. I have an excellent biography of Godwin which sheds a good deal of light on these times, I just need to lay my eyes on it to remember which. It’s lovely to see an article so thoughtfully and artfully done concerning literary history.
By the way, would you mind telling me the title of the biography you have about Godwin? I’d like to look it up!
The best one I have is The Godwins and the Shelley’s by William St. Clair. The author had access to many documents from private and institutional sources not readily available to the public, which is cool. St. Clair was a bit, well, pompous about this but he really put things together well.
Yes to all of this. I acknowledge the importance of the literary pieces that were so important to Mary as a young woman, but that does not mean that we cannot feel sympathy and even a bit of anger for what happened to Harriet. For doing so is only devaluing her further. Does the existence of a book or Percy’s “modern” view mean she was so insignificant that she could be treated thusly? Why can we not see both sides? Why can some people not simply acknowledge that a soul suffered due to these choices and was lost to us early? It would not have erased the words of Wollstonecraft, but it would have maintained Harriet’s dignity. That is what I mourn. Thank you for your thoughtful comment, friend 🤍🍂 I hope you’re having a wonderful October!
Thanks. I knew in an abstract way that Shelley had been married before, but this post has shown me the real story.
Honest, I was teary eyed writing it. It’s true that the victors write history isn’t it? But I want to remember Harriet too </3
I did not know anything at all about Harriet. She had been effectively erased from my education. Shelley and Mary were the two who were eternally and indivisibly together in my mind. So, it just goes to show that history is, as I have always maintained, a matter of opinion and often manipulation. Thank you for this enlightening post.,
Exactly - while I love Mary, she and Percy are the victors in this narrative, and the saying goes, history is written by the victors. It’s very sad.
What a great read, mariella
i think i was aware that shelley had been married before, but i certainly didn’t know all the heartbreaking details. harriet certainly deserved the devotion of her husband instead of his adultery. how utterly sad :(
Honestly, yes - the times might change all we wish, but no human being deserves to be treated like that, as if she was all of a sudden completely insignificant, to the point where she lost the battle with her own grief. That is what I mourn :(
Interesting read. At first i thought she was mary’s sister or sime relative for some reason 😂 but regarding mary’s role, it is entirely possible that mary shelley was somewhat gaslit about it all. Or even groomed by percy. Keep in mind, mary shelley was still a teenager and percy was a married man. I feel like mary might have very little to do with harriet’s story. Percy should have known better. He was probably playing with two women in his life. One a wife of his two children, and the other a malleable teenager. Mary was part of the romantic movement and that might have influenced her to let go of any reasoning and follow her heart more, not knowing she’s being manipulated by percy. This is my two cents though, i could be wrong.
Harriet was mentioned, very much in passing in a lecture during my literature degree, but I had no idea of the whole sad story. Yet another example of inconvenient women being painted out of history.
I do wonder, if Percy hadn’t died at such a young age, if his love for Mary would have also faded and she’d be left behind. She was probably better equipped (thanks to her mother) with how to survive it but the heart would still feel terrible things.
I find it interesting you dwell on the pathos of Harriett at your tea talk with Mary and never mention Mary’s mother., Wollestonecraft. Wollestonecraft was a feminist ahead of her time who frankly lived and died in an unconventional life style. Vindication of the Rights of Women, her legacy to her infant daughter was augmented by Godwin’s memoir of living with this feminist author. Undoubtedly Shelley read both works as she grew up in Godwins household. With her parental intellectualism at play in her thoughts from formative years, it is hardly surprising she herself perhaps felt few qualms about her relationship with a married man. What were her views on marriage? Did she feel sympathy to the abandoned wife or pity that Harriett fell victim to the institution she herself rejected? Was Harriett the victim of this group, or the archaic laws of marriage at the time that denied her a respectable divorce and alimony? I am not fascinated by what happened to Harriett. I pity her but when her husband withdrew from the marriage, it did not make Mary culpable in the act or the outcome. Harriett had the misfortune to marry a man of questing thought, one who would not be bound by the mores of their society. Perhaps if she had been less restricted by conventional views, Harriett could have remained with her children as part of the commune that grew up around this group of poet and thinkers. We do not know. That is what I would have talked about with Mary.
Interesting! Yes Mary and Percy were reading Wollstonecraft before they went away together. Of course Harriett was an institutional/cultural victim, but I still think of Percy as a bit of a cad.
Really enjoyed this, Mariella. It’s so important to shine a light on Harriet’s life - to acknowledge her contribution to that wildly complex and intense set of interconnected lives/stories. In case you didn’t spot it, a few months ago I wrote a piece about Percy Bysshe Shelley, by the way: https://open.substack.com/pub/jamesleeauthor/p/a-young-radical-the-life-and-poetry?r=1hzapt&utm_medium=ios