Mary Shelley Quotes
Quotes from The Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley Frankenstein Diaries
On the published 1831 Frankenstein Edition Introduction
“The introduction regarding that summer on Lake Geneva, I now freely and for the first time admit was deliberately structured to avoid the revelation of some facts I had promised to keep private.”
On Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley’s Elopement
“It was undoubtedly a pure imprudence of youth, our escape. Yet, I have never since regretted it on the shape of our lives together, though of its consequence upon others of our sphere, I have.”
Mary on Shelley
“Shelley paused for a moment, searching in his pockets to find some scraps of paper. The paper I could see had fragments of verse scribbled upon them, but without care for what they might contain, he tore them into squares and folded them into a little boats, kneeling down to float them on the water. He stood again and watched as the little airy crafts of white bobbed on the ripples.”
Mary on Fanny’s Suicide
“It was nearly the last time I would see my dear sister, Fanny. For it was she, I believe, who was the most innocent in all the events which tumbled like a hillside of loose slipping shale in our tragic story. I hesitate to think of it as a tragedy, for it was full of so much beauty and joy, yet the twists of a tragic fate did intrude upon it.”
Mary on the Elopement
“I knew the labyrinthine intrigue of his marriage was of a nature to present us with difficulties, but I was assured of the naturalness of our joining. I was sixteen and the world was suddenly entirely simple to me; we would be together. In spite of all the voices we knew would come against us, we resolved on a plan to be free.”
