By Kathryn Neves
1816 was known as the “Year Without a Summer.” Likely due to the eruption of an Indonesian volcano, temperatures dropped worldwide, and weather conditions were severe and dangerous. Heavy rains fell across Europe (and the rest of the world), destroying crops and forcing the people inside. It was in the middle of this “summerless summer” that the novel Frankenstein was conceived.
With her husband Percy and her stepsister Claire Clairmont, Mary Shelley traveled to Lake Geneva in the Swiss Alps—there to visit the famed poet Lord Byron and his friend Dr. John Polidori. Driven inside by the relentless rain, the group—writers, poets, and philosophers all—entertained each other with German ghost stories. Awash in thrills and delights, Byron came up with a proposal: each of them would write a ghost story. For several days the writers brainstormed, discussed, and dreamed. In the end, two works came out of it—Polidori’s The Vampyre, and Mary Shelley’s beloved classic Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
The gathering at Lake Geneva was not merely an isolated moment of creativity, but a coming-together of some of the most influential voices of Romanticism—an artistic and intellectual movement that celebrated passion, the sublimity of nature, and the deeply interior nature of the individual self. The stormy summer that confined these poets indoors is a perfect example of classic Romantic ideals: frail humanity dwarfed by the grandiose spectacle of nature, the allure of things undiscovered, and creativity born from isolation and reflection.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley
From birth, Mary Shelley was primed to be a great thinker and writer. Her father was a political philosopher and her mother—for whom she was named—was a noted feminist thinker and advocate, having published her seminal A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Mary spent her youth deeply engaged in studies and acquainting herself with many celebrated minds of the age.
The poet Percy Shelley began visiting her father regularly when Mary was sixteen. They quickly fell in love, frequently meeting in secrecy at her mother’s grave. Eventually, despite the fact that Percy was already married, the two eloped and lived as a married couple until the death of his first wife—at which point Mary and Percy finally officially married. As a couple, they frequently collaborated and inspired each others’ writings and politics.
Mary’s work is known for its exploration of gender, particularly the ways in which women moved through 19th century society. Her work is also known for its blending of the Romantic and the Gothic genres—revering the sublimity of nature and fate, while toying with the horror and the isolation it can bring. Her writings were also very political, critiquing the hypocrisy and the powerlessness of various establishments, while still advocating for social and political reform. Perhaps most influential on her writing was her profound grief; though she was pregnant five times, only one of her children lived into adulthood. The themes of grief, loss, and parenthood pervade all her significant works.
Though she wrote several novels, many essays, biographies, and political articles, Mary is most well-known for Frankenstein. Widely considered to be the first science-fiction story, this work has endured and established her firmly in the realm of Romantic figures—not just as the wife of a famous poet, but a brilliant writer in her own right.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Shelley had a reputation to match his provocative poetry. Radical in his literary works and his political views, he was largely dismissed during his lifetime. It was only after his death that appreciation for his work started to grow; he eventually became a significant influence on subsequent generations. His work, with its emphasis on the transcendence of beauty and the power of rich metaphor and imagery, has cemented him as one of the major poets of the Romantic era.
Percy believed in free love, and as such, spent his life in various affairs. This complicated his relationship with Mary, as while she claimed to agree with his philosophy, she found it hard to swallow in practice. This lifestyle heavily influenced his literary work; many of his poems and essays and elegies celebrate the various loves he had throughout his life.
In 1822, only eight years after eloping with Mary, Percy set sail for Italy with several friends. The inexperienced crew was caught in a storm—and ten days later, Percy’s drowned body washed ashore. After cremating his body, Percy’s heart remained, and Mary kept it in her desk until the end of her life.
Some of his major works include Ozymandias, The Mask of Anarchy, Adonais, Prometheus Unbound, Queen Mab, and To a Skylark. His work would heavily influence later poets, including Robert Browning, Thomas Hardy, and William Butler Yeats.
Claire Clairmont
Perhaps the most forgotten of the group, Claire Clairmont is largely known for her connections to other writers and thinkers. She was the stepsister of Mary Shlley, and the lover of Lord Byron (and mother to his child). However, despite often being overshadowed by these literary giants, Claremont was a brilliant woman in her own right.
Like Mary Shelley, Claremont grew up with a greater education than most women of the age. Her spare time was often spent reading Shakespeare and Rousseau. She was also a fan of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley’s mother. Her passion for literature was so great that she sometimes fell into “hysterical fits” while reading.
Claremont helped to facilitate the relationship between Percy and Mary Shelley, growing so close with them that she came with them when they eloped in 1814, travelling with them across Europe. Sometime during this period she came into contact with Lord Byron, beginning a clandestine relationship that resulted in a pregnancy. It was during the early stages of her gestation that she, along with the Shelleys, stayed with Byron in Lake Geneva, and participated in the hours of ghost stories and philosophical conversation.
While her relationship to Byron was not long-lasting (and, in fact, eventually grew very hostile), her relationship to the Romantic movement as a whole proved to be her lasting legacy. She made a few literary attempts, including a now-lost story titled “The Idiot” and an unpublished novel. Some scholars also believe that she was the true author of the short story “The Pole,” which was listed as written by “the author of Frankenstein.” Her connections with, and participation in, the Romantic era of literature have established her as an important figure within the movement.
Dr. John Polidori
Before he was a writer, John Polidori was well known as a physician. Having received his degree from the University of Edinburgh, his thesis on sleepwalking established him as a prominent figure in the field of medicine—enough for Lord Byron to take notice. In 1816, Byron enlisted Polidori as his personal physician and brought him to lake Geneva in Switzerland. It was here that Polidori joined the rest of the writers and thinkers in the ghost story contest.
John Polidori is notable for being the only other member of the group to complete his ghost story. During that fateful summer, Lord Byron began a piece, which is known as “A Fragment;” he later gave this fragment to Poliori, allowing him to expand upon it. This fragment later became the short story The Vampyre—the very first modern vampire story. Though Byron did begin the story, both he and Polidori said that the story was Polidori’s alone.
Polidori is also well-connected with another major literary family: the Rossettis. After his death his sister married the scholar Gabriele Rossetti, and their descendants—including the poet Christina Rossetti—became the nieces and nephews of Polidori, continuing on his literary tradition.
It was only after meeting Byron that Polidori became a writer. Perhaps influenced by the many brilliant minds who surrounded him, Polidori shifted his focus to Romantic fiction; eventually, he would be known as an important figure of the movement. His notable works include the play Boadicea, the poem The Fall of the Angels: A Sacred Poem, and the fiction works The Vampyre: A Tale and Ernestus Berchtold; or, The Modern Oedipus: A Tale.
Lord George Gordon Byron
Lord Byron was not only a major figure of the Romantic era, but also one of the greatest poets in British history. His work has influenced writers and artists for two centuries; he is even the namesake of the “Byronic hero” archetype—a hero who is both idealized and flawed, isolated and passionate, self-destructive and talented. Byron’s fingerprints—both from his artistic and his personal lives—can be found all throughout English literature.
Byron’s life was full of scandal and intrigue. In the beginning he was extremely popular, spawning an era of “Byromania” in England. However, due to various illicit relationships and his bisexuality, Byron was eventually vilified by English society. Due to this, he eventually left England and spent the rest of his life travelling across Europe.
It was Byron who suggested the 1816 ghost story contest. After inviting the Shelleys, Claremont, and Polidori to stay with him in Lake Geneva, he led discussions of philosophy, art, and spirituality, all of which heavily influenced the themes and ideas within Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Near the end of his life, Byron moved to Greece, where he joined the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. He spent nearly his entire fortune funding the Greek forces, and fought with them himself, even taking some of the military under his own command. However, he fell ill during the conflict and ultimately died in April 1824. His actions during the war led him to become a folk hero in Greece.
One of the most prolific writers of his age, Lord Byron’s work explored themes of freedom, exile, disillusionment, and passion. His works, including his poetry, were often narrative in nature, using the imagery of the sublime to explore stories wide and dramatic in their scope. His major works include Mazeppa, She Walks in Beauty, Fugitive Pieces, Hours of Idleness, and his magnum opus Don Juan. His works have been adapted into over forty operas, and have been set to music by such brilliant composers as Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn.
With its striking imagery, its devoted and awestruck view of nature, and its emphasis on imagination and emotion, the Romantic age produced writers and thinkers whose influence on our culture is immeasurable. The impact of their works can be found among every movement that followed Romanticism, including the works of today. Frankenstein, one of the most famous works of the age certainly exemplifies the strengths and ideals of the movement. And, influenced in its creation by five great minds of the age, it endures to this day as one of the most magnificent works in the English language.
