Many novelists base their books on real-life experiences and in the case of Mary Shelley, it is no different. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley was born on August 30, 1797. At a young age, she was exposed to her father's library of English authors and listened to her father's educational discussions with his friends. She never went to school, but was homeschooled, so that was one of the ways she learned. Her father owned a publishing house, and at the age of 13 she published her first work, Mounseer Nongtongspaw, which is a verse poem. She never knew her biological mother and hated her stepmother because she was the exact opposite of her real mother. As a result of this hatred, she was sent to Dundee by her father and on her return to London she was introduced to her future husband, Percy Bisshe Shelley. After meeting for the first time in 1812 at a dinner hosted by his parents, they did not see each other again until 1814 when they became very close. Mary's father was not supportive of the couple at first and tried to separate them. They were atheists and found themselves in controversial situations because of this and their political beliefs. After several arguments between the couple and the family, Mary and Percy take a trip to Switzerland and France to escape. They began to discuss ideas about this trip and Mary used her turbulent experiences to write her stories (Means 2). After having their first son, William, in 1816, Percy's legal wife committed suicide, giving them the opportunity to legally marry (Gilliland 1). Godwin and Shelley's relationship began to improve after marriage. After marriage, Percy and Mary moved to Marlow, England and had a daughter, Clara (Means 3). Around 1819, when they moved to Pi...... middle of paper ......travel to visit a poet with a friend (Mary Shelley 3), his boat sank in 1822. The same year, Mary had a miscarriage. She suffered a nervous breakdown because of these tragedies and it filled her life with loneliness (Lombardi 1). After her husband died, Mary struggled to support herself and her son. Sir Timothy Shelley gave him a small amount of money and had his works published anonymously. She wrote a few more books after her husband's death, but they received negative reviews. These novels also contained tragedies probably drawn from his own life. In the very last years of her life, near death, Mary was writing a biography of her husband but did not have time to finish it before she died (Shelley, Mary) She died of brain tumor in his sleep on February 1st. 1851 at age 54 (Lombardi 1). She lived a tragic life and in her novels it showed.