Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in London, .
She was destined to live an extraordinary life. Her parents were.
two of the most noted freethinkers of the Enlightenment era. Her father, .
William Godwin, was a celebrated philosopher and historian. He was known .
for overeating and borrowing money who would give him a loan. He didn't .
have much time for anything but his philosophical ideas. He met his match.
in Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary's mother. She was every bit as much a radical.
thinker as Godwin. She declared herself independent at the age of 21. She .
and her sisters ran a school in France, where she had an affair with an army .
captain and had her first child, Fanny, out of wedlock. After being .
abandoned, she and Fanny moved back to England and attempted suicide. .
She began writing. She was well-known for her revolutionary feminist .
writings. Wollstonecraft and Godwin met a dinner party at Godwin's home .
and the two began an affair. Wollstonecraft was five months pregnant when .
she married Godwin. Although Godwin and Wollstonecraft didn't agree with .
the whole marriage thing, they wanted Mary's children to be legitimate.
children. Mary's mother died of complications just ten days after Mary was.
born. Her father was a self-absorbed intellectual and was left to take care of .
his daughters all alone. Although he loved his daughters, the responsibility of .
raising them on his own was too much for him and soon began looking for a .
wife. .
Godwin married four years later to Mary Jane Clairmont. She turned.
out to be a mean and shallow woman who favored her own two children over .
Mary and Fanny. Mary was a lively child and was often treated unfairly by .
her stepmother. She received frequent whippings which led to her rebellion.
of a girl's traditional role. As a result of this, Mary kept to herself and was .
unhappy and alone. Although she didn't have a formal education, she picked .