Many novelists base their books on real-life experiences and in Mary Shelley's case it is no different. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley was born on August 30, 1797. At a young age, she came into contact with 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 this was one of the ways she learned. His father owned a publishing house so, at the age of 13, he published his first work, Mounseer Nongtongspaw, which is a poem in verse. 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 when she returned 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 did not support 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 disputes between the couple and the family, Mary and Percy went on a trip to Switzerland and France to escape. They began to discuss ideas about this trip, and Mary used her hectic experiences to write her stories (Mezzo 2). After having their first child, William, in 1816, Percy's legal wife committed suicide giving them the opportunity to legally marry (Gilliland 1). The relationship between Godwin and Shelley began to improve after the wedding. After their marriage, Percy and Mary moved to Marlow, England, and had a daughter, Clara (Mezzi 3). Around 1819, when they moved to Pi......middle of paper......trip to visit a poet with a friend (Mary Shelley 3), his boat sank in 1822. In the same year, Mary had bad administration. Due to these tragedies he had a nervous breakdown which filled his life with loneliness (Lombardi 1). After her husband's death, Mary found it difficult to support herself and her son. Sir Timothy Shelley gave her a small sum of money and had her publish her works 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 last years of her life, near death, Mary was constructing a biography of her husband but did not have time to finish it before she died (Shelley, Mary). He died of a brain tumor in his sleep on February 1, 1851 at age 54 (Lombardi 1). He lived a tragic life and he showed it in his novels.