Fragments
| Title | Composition date | Manuscript | Summary | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "History of the Jews" | c. 1812–16 | Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 22-37 | This fragment is written in MS's handwriting and "draws on particularly passages in the Old Testament books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua and Judges and follows a common 'Jacobin' mode in which the veracity of the Old Testament is disproved by foregrounding absurdities and inconsistencies in the narrative, the ultimate aim being to undermine the tenets of Christianity by taking apart the credibility of its foundation in the Hebrew scriptures". Jane Blumberg has attributed it to MS (but with a strong influence from PBS). Others believe it to be a translation of an unknown French anti-clerical work. It could also be a dictated work. | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Theseus" | 1815? | Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 20-1 | This fragment describes Theseus, drawing on Plutarch's Parallel Lives. | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Cyrus" | 1815? | Ab. Dep. c. 477/1, f.63 and Ab. Dep. c. 534/1, f. 95 | This fragment is a brief life of Cyrus the Great of Persia and a summary of the achievements of ancient Chaldea, India, and Egypt. | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Address to the Duchess of Angoulême" | c. 1815–16 | Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, f. 92-93 | This is a fragment written in MS's handwriting of an "imaginary address from a dead speaker in the manner of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead". The addressee is Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Duchess d'Angoulême, the only surviving child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the leader of an Ultra-Royalist party following Napoleon's defeat. The speaker in Mary I of England. MS may have written this work herself, may have taken this work in dictation from PBS, or the two may have authored it together. | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Correspondence of Louis XVI" | 1816 | Ab. Dep. c. 477/2, ff. 1-19 | This fragment is a partial translation of Correspondance politique et confidentielle inédite de Louis XIV, Avec ses frères, et plusieurs personnes célèbres, pendant les dernières années de son règne, et jusqu'à sa mort, avec des observations par Hélene-Maria Williams. 2 vols. Paris: Debray, 1803. | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Cupid and Psyche" | November 1817 | Library of Congress MSS 13,290, pp. 35–65 and Bodleian MS Shelley adds. e. 2 | This fragment is a partial translation of the tale of "Cupid and Psyche" from Apuleius's Golden Ass. | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Samuel" | 1819-20 | Ab. Dep. e. 274, pp. 3–24 | This fragment is an abridgement of the first fifteen chapters of the 1 Samuel. It may be modelled on William Godwin's children's book Bible Stories (1802). | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "The Necessity of a Belief in the Heathen Mythology to a Christian" | 1820 | Ab. Dep. e. 274, pp. 102 rev.-97 rev., 92 rev. | This fragment is a "gathering of notes (with touches of dry wit) towards an argumentative essay". According to Markley, "its purpose appears strategic: to undermine the claims of Judaeo-Christian scriptures in order to assert the beauty and superior morality of classical myth". | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Cry of War to the Greeks" | 2–5 April 1821 | Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5, ff. 91, 34 | This fragment is an unfinished rough draft translation of the Greek patriot and war-leader's Alexander Ypsilanti's call to arms. The finished copy was sent to London to accompany pro-Greek newspaper articles, but has disappeared. The translation is a collaborative effort between MS and PBS. | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Life of Shelley" | 10 February 1823, 2 March 1823, and 25 March 1823 | Bodleian MS Shelley adds. c. 5 ff. 113-118 | This fragment "presents a vivid portrait of Mary Shelley in the early stages of her widowhood...The fragments include an assessment of personality and character and some anecdotes of his boyhood found nowhere else." | This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "God of the Best the Brightest" | 30 December 1824 and 6 January 1825 | Pierpont Morgan Library, MA 406 | This poetic fragment may be a quotation from another writer or it may be by MS. | |
| "Alas I weep my life away" | 14 August 1831 | Journal V, Ab. Dep. d. 311/5 | This poetic fragment may be a quotation from another writer or it may be by MS. | |
| " "Struggle no more, my Soul with the sad chains" | 16 August 1831 | Journal V, Ab. Dep. d. 311/5 | This poetic fragment may be a quotation from another writer or it may be by MS. | |
| "Cecil" | 1844 | Ab. Dep. 3. 229, pp. 1–32 | "Cecil" is a partial translation of Ida Hahn-Hahn's German novel of that name. | Among the last known writing projects undertaken by Mary Shelley. This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
| "Inez de Medina" | 1848-50 | Ab. Dep. c. 767/3, pp. 129–46, 147-164 | This fragment is a partial translation of the novel Inez de Medina by Laura Galloni. | This is the last known work-in-progress by Mary Shelley. This fragment is included in Markley but not in Lyles. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Works By Mary Shelley
Famous quotes containing the word fragments:
“It is perhaps the principal admirableness of the Gothic schools of architecture, that they receive the results of the labour of inferior minds; and out of fragments full of imperfection ... raise up a stately and unaccusable whole.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part.”
—Allan Bloom (1930–1992)
“The art of writing books is not yet invented. But it is at the point of being invented. Fragments of this nature are literary seeds. There may be many an infertile grain among them: nevertheless, if only some come up!”
—Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (1772–1801)