The Collaborative Literary Relationship of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

How did Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, two of the most iconic and celebrated authors of the Romantic Period, contribute to each other's achievements? This book is the first to dedicate a full-length study to exploring the nature of the Shelleys' literary relationship　in depth. It offers new insights into the works of these talented individuals who were bound together by their personal romance and shared commitment to a literary career. Most innovatively, the book describes how Mary Shelley contributed significantly to Percy Shelley's writing, whilst also discussing Percy's involvement in her work.

A reappraisal of original manuscripts reveals the Shelleys as a remarkable literary couple, participants in a reciprocal and creative exchange. Hand-written evidence shows Mary adding to Percy's work in draft and vice-versa. A focus on the Shelleys' texts - set in the context of their lives and especially their travels - is used to explain how they enabled one another to accomplish a quality of work which they might never have achieved alone. Illustrated with reproductions from their notebooks and drafts, this volume brings Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley to the forefront of emerging scholarship on collaborative literary relationships and the social nature of creativity.

Dr. Anna Mercer has a PhD in English Literature from the University of York. She has also studied at Jesus College, University of Cambridge and the University of Liverpool. She has published essays in The Keats-Shelley Review and The Coleridge Bulletin, and has also written and edited several blogs on Romanticism (including for the British Association for Romantic Studies and the Keats-Shelley Association of America). She won the runner-up Keats-Shelley Essay Prize in 2015. Anna currently teaches English Literature at Cardiff University and works at Keats House Museum. This is her first monograph.