Between Biography and Historical Romance: Mary Shelley's Valperga

Abstract

The present work aims at analyzing Mary Shelley’s second published novel Valperga. A background of the life of the author will be provided, with a particular reference to the broad education she received from her father William Godwin and the readings of her late mother Mary Wollstonecraft’s works. It will be considered to what extent her education and life experiences influenced the main themes of Valperga and the subjects of her novels in general. Additionally, the vast source material she read for her historical romance will be examined, with a specific reference to Godwin’s essay “Of History and Romance”, which provided Mary Shelley with an important idea that she seems to develop through her novel, namely, the suggestion that “The writer of romance […] is to be considered as the writer of real history”. It will be considered to what extent the aforementioned sentence echoed in Mary Shelley’s task of writing a “History of women”, thus subverting the official history written by men, which was something that a limited number of women writers before her tried to do in literary terms. Furthermore, the subject of biography will be taken into consideration and examined as a literary genre. Then the character of Beatrice and the related subplot of Wilhelmina of Bohemia and Magfreda will be analyzed. Finally, Gothic features of the novel will be examined, thus noting that Valperga could be placed among biography, historical romance and Gothic fiction.