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2.1 Who is Mary Shelley?

Read and learn

                        

    Mary Shelley was an English writer. She was born in 1797 in London. She is very famous for writing Frankenstein. You probably know this story because there are lots of science fiction movies about it. She married to Percy Shelley, a very famous poet. They travelled together through Europe and they lived in France and Italy.  The summer of 1816, Mary and her husband travelled to a lake in Geneva (Switzerland), to spend the holidays with some writer friends.

    That summer was very strange because temperatures were extremely cold! This was caused by some volcano explosions in Filippines and Indonesia that affected the weather. There was no sun and holidays were very boring, so Mary and her friends decided to invent ghost stories to have fun. Mary wrote the best horror story and she invented Frankenstein! In the book, a crazy scientist invents a strange creature (Frankenstein), but humans are so cruel with him that they can only see the creature as a monster. It is a very interesting book!

Mary with frankenstein
Alba Lorenzo con Canva Ia. Mary with frankenstein (CC BY-NC-SA)

https://kids.kiddle.co/Mary_Shelley

https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/tormento-literario-mary-shelley_15577

https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Mary-Wollstonecraft-Shelley/336363

Let's remember the information

Order the events in time.

  • She was born in 1797.
  • She married a poet.
  • She travelled to Italy and France.
  • She spent a summer holiday in Switzerland.
  • She and her friends decided to write ghost stories to have fun.
  • She wrote the novel Frantekstein.
  • Frankenstein became one of the most famous horror stories.

Check answers

That's right!

Wrong answer

Say if the following sentences are true or false.

Question 1

She married the poet Percy Shelley.

Question 2

She lived in France, Italy and Switzerland.

Question 3

She went on vacation with her friends to a lake in Geneva.

Question 4

During the holidays the weather was bad so they decided to write stories.

Question 5

Mary wrote a love story about a couple of lovers.

Question 6

Frankenstein became one of the most known horror novels.

Watch and Learn

Here you have the first cinema adaptation of Frankenstein, created in 1910 by Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison (1910). Frankenstein (Dominio público)



Think about it...

- What differences this movie from modern movies?

- Do you identify the main characters of the story?

- What do you think about Frankenstein, did he deserve to live?

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