Chronology of the history in Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein
This chronology comes from Romantic Circles and from my notes—displayed for educational purposes only.
1754   William Godwin is born.
1757        William Blake is born.
27 April Mary Wollstonecraft (MW) is born.
1772   21 Oct Samuel Taylor Coleridge is born.
1774    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1836) publishes The Sorrows of Young Werther in Germany, marking the beginning of what becomes known as the Romantic movement.
1775   Jane Austen is born.
1784 26 Jan Byron’s half sister, Augusta Mary Byron is born in France. Their father, “Mad Jack” Byron, is the common link.
1785 13 May Mad Jack Byron, a penniless rake and gambler who is “a very handsome man” marries his second wife, Catherine Gordon, a Scotswoman he meets in Bath. She is an heiress who traces her line to Mary Stuart.
1786   MW writes Thoughts on the Education of Daughters.  She and her sisters work as the mistresses of a school for young women at Newington Green, near London, which fails.
1787     MW writes Mary, A Fiction and Original Stories, a children’s book, leaving uncompleted a fantasy work, Cave of Fancy. 
1788 22 Jan George Gordon, Lord Byron (LB) is born in London. LB is born with part of the membrane of the fetal period covering his head (a caul—believed to indicate distinction and good luck) a club foot (his right—it was turned in probably due to a shortened tendon) and a shrunken calf. His mother is destitute. Mad Jack has come and gone; he is only in Byron's life on and off between March 1788 and Sept 1790 until he flees back to France, never to be seen again. Mad Jack dies of consumption in August 1792.
1789   The Bastille falls beginning the French Revolution.
1790   MW writes A Vindication of the Rights of Man and publishes anonymously. She is revealed as the author once the book is a success. Her authorship brings her fame, but also makes her the subject of attack, particularly by James Burke who thinks it is shockingly improper for a woman to meddle in the affairs of men. He calls her a hyena in petticoats. MW brings out a second edition of her Original Stories. Blake illustrates them. She also writes Thoughts on Education.
1791   MW publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Women. William Godwin, by now an avowed atheist, begins work on Political Justice.
1792 4 Aug Percy Bysshe Shelley (Shelley) is born.
  MW and Godwin meet. MW does not like Godwin, who finds her attractive and not what he expected—a brazen amazon, he said.
  LB moves with his mother to Aberdeen and enters school. At four and a half, he's already uncontrolable, but loves learning, especially history. He reads fluently by five. His love of the highlands comes from spending time in Ballerich, forty miles inland, where he goes to recover from Scarlet Fever. They called him, “the little devil Georgie” because he is “possessed of sullen moods and ferocious tempers.”
1793   Godwin publishes Political Justice which makes him instantly famous. MW is living in Paris, the Revolution is full bore and her affair with the American, Gilbert Imlay, who she meets in March, has begun. Robespierre and Danton rule, by July civil war is raging, the guillotine is putting hundreds to death. By August MW is pregnant. By September, the English are being arrested. She registers—after a quasi wedding ceremony that she will later say, “clogged her soul,"—at the American Embassy as Imlay’s wife. This protects her. Many of her friends, including Thomas Paine, flee. In October, Marie Antoinette is guillotined and by the end of October, Mme. Roland, MW's close friend is executed.By December there is trouble between Imlay and MW.
1794   MW leaves Paris, joining Imlay in Le Havre. She finishes writing A Historical and Moral View. MW and Imlay are having serious problems. In July Robespierre is executed. Imlay deserts her.
14 May Fanny Imlay Godwin, Mary Shelley's half-sister,is born.
  Godwin publishes Caleb Williams, another popular success. He risks his life during the treason trails taking place in England, adding to his fame and popularity.
1795 May

MW leaves Paris to join Imlay in London. She attempts suicide, overdosing on laudanum, after Imlay makes it clear he has a new mistress. He sends her on a business trip to Scandinavia—she eventually publishes letters and a journal account of the trip.
7 Oct MW attempts suicide a second time, jumping off the Battersea Bridge into the Thames. She is rescued.
1796   MW and Godwin meet again after five years. Imlay returns, but by April, Mary has broken with him for good. She visits Godwin; they began seeing one another. By July, Godwin is speaking of love.
1797 29 March MW marries Godwin in St. Pancras Church, London; MW, Fanny and Godwin live at 29, The Polygon, Somers Town.
30 Aug Mary Wollstonecraft gives birth to Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin just after midnight.
10 Sept Mary Wollstonecraft dies from puerperal fever, MS is 11 days old.
1798 27 April Jane (later called Claire) is born to Mary Jane Vial. MS’s step-sister.
1801 21 Dec Godwin marries Mary Jane Vial (also known as Clairmont), who has two children: Charles and Jane/Claire. He had two children: Fanny and MS.
1803 28 March Mary Jane gives birth to William Godwin, Jr.
1805   Godwin and Mary Jane open M. J. Godwin & Co. Juvenile Library, a publishing house for children
1807   The Godwin family moves to the headquarters of M. J. Godwin & Co. at 4 Skinner Street, Holborn.
1808   M. J. Godwin & Co. publishes Mounseer Nongtongpaw; or the Discoveries of John Bull on a Trip to Paris, a poem to which MS contributes.
1811   Jane Austen (1771-1817) published her first novel, Sense and Sensibility. Pride and Prejudice is published in 1813; Mansfield Park in 1814; Emma in 1816; Northanger Abbey, begun in 1797 is published posthumously in 1818; Persuasion, is also published posthumously in 1818.
1812 Jan Nineteen year-old Shelley contacts Godwin. He is recently sent down from Oxford and making the decision to devote his life to politics. He travels to Ireland (Harriet is with him) to work for Catholic emancipation. He corresponds regularly with Godwin (his letters are big and heavy, costing as much as a shilling, 8 pence, the same as a weeks groceries). He distributes a pamphlet: An Address to the Irish People he has written anonymously. Godwin is in desperate financial straits and see Shelley as a “lasting friend,” who might “contribute to the comforts of my closing days.”
27 Feb LB (who is 24) delivers his maiden speech to Parliament. He defends the Luddite cause, which gains him notoriety.
10 March Childe Harold is published, by March 15 it is the talk of London. LB is famous. March 16 LB appears at Lady Caroline Lamb’s waltzing party (waltzing, a German dance, is the latest rage). 
7 June MS goes to Dundee, Scotland, to live with the family of William Baxter, a friend of William Godwin. There, she forms her first close friendship with the Baxter's youngest daughter, Isabel.
Oct Shelley shares Queen Mab, A Philosophical Poem with Godwin, who is not overly impressed, (but Fanny is, she’s falling in love). A copy is sent to LB who is impressed enough to show it to Southey.
10 Nov MS returns to London for a visit.
11 Nov MS meets Shelley when he and Harriet dine with the Godwins. Burdett, who in 1810 was imprisoned in the Tower of London for sedition, has been reelected to the House of Commons, Napoleon has been defeated in Moscow.
9 Dec Leigh Hunt goes on trail for libel—he has using The Examiner to promote Parliamentary Reform, and led a protest against Burdett's imprisonment. Both men are heroes of Shelley's.
1813
4 Feb Hunt is sentenced to two years in jail. Byron visits him there.
April Shelley returns to London from Ireland, but keeps his distance from Godwin. They began to talk again in June after Shelley and Harriet's daughter, Ianthe, is born.
3 Jun MS returns to the Baxter's home in Scotland.
Aug Shelley turns 21 and begins to help Godwin financially, though Shelley has very little and has been, himself, hiding from creditors.
Fall LB and Godwin meet, LB asks Godwin why he hasn’t written another novel. Godwin responds that it would kill him to do so. “And what matter, we should have another St. Leon,” LB tells him. Like Shelley, LB greatly admires Godwin and fancies himself as Falkland in Caleb Williams. LB is society's darling, still hotly pursued by Lady Caroline who he is seeking to divest himself of, but cannot without considerable ugliness—which is creating scandal. LB and Augusta are secretly beginning their fateful affair.
1814 30 March MS returns home to London. Isabel Baxter has become engaged to her former brother in law, 48-year-old David Booth.
May MS and PBS meet for the second time.
28 July MS and Shelley elope to France, accompanied by Claire Clairmont. William Godwin refuses any communication with his daughter for the next two and a half years.
July/Aug The three take a six-week tour through France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. While in Paris, they leave behind a box of papers. MS will later suspect it to contain letters the mysterious George Byron uses to blackmail her in 1845.
13 Sept MS, Shelley, and Claire return from Switzerland to London.
27 Sept MS, Shelley, and Claire move to 5 Church Terrace, Pancras.
4 Oct MS tries to contact Isabel Booth but is prevented by David Booth. Possibly concerned over the illegality of his own marriage to his former sister-in-law, he refuses to let his wife see MS.
23 Oct/
9 Nov 		Shelley goes into hiding from his creditors; he and MS live apart during this period.
9 Nov MS, Shelley, and Claire move to 2 Nelson Square, Blackfriars Road.
14 Nov Shelley introduces MS to his Oxford friend, Thomas Jefferson Hogg. Shelley records in his journal that Hogg is "pleased with Mary."
30 Nov Charles Shelley born to Shelley and Harriet, their second child.
1815 1 Jan TJ Hogg, with Shelley's encouragement, declares his love to MS. She reciprocates his in letter, but not in fact, perhaps due to her pregnancy. Shelley and Claire are conducting some kind of intimacy, but Shelley will swear to Byron it was not sexual.
10 Jan MS, Shelley, and Claire move to 4 Hans Place.
22 Feb MS gives birth two months prematurely to daughter, Clara.
2 March MS, Shelley, and Claire move to 13 Arabella Road, Pimlico.
6 March MS's premature daughter Clara dies.
Jun/July MS and Shelley travel through the south coast of Devonshire.
4 Aug The couple moves to Bishopsgate, near the east entrance to Windsor Great Park.
1816 24 Jan MS gives birth to a son, William.
April Claire becomes LB's mistress; MS meets Byron in London.
27 April MS, Shelley, baby William, and a pregnant Claire leave London for Swizterland. Claire is pursuing LB, who left England on April 23. They are in Paris by May 8, and arrive at the Hotel de Sécheron in Geneva, on May 13. Shelley registers as an aethiest, causing a stir.
27 May Shelley meets LB, who had recently arrived in Switzerland with his physician John Polidori and man servant Fletcher. By June 1, MS, Shelley, Claire, and William move into Maison Chapuis just below Villa Diodati on the lake.
10 June LB rents the nearby Milton's one time home, the Villa Diodati.
16/17 June After beign challenged by Byron to write a ghost story, MS begins Frankenstein.
22/30 June LB and Shelley sail for a week's journey on Lake Geneva. They hit bad weather and have one close call where Shelley refuses to let LB attempt to save him. Shelley can't swim.
21/27 July MS, PBS, and Claire travel to Mont Blanc. MS's description of this journey, as well as those Shelley made of his previous tour, provides material for Frankenstein.
24 July MS's journal entry reads "Write my story;" her first written reference to Frankenstein.
29 Aug MS, PBS, William, and Claire leave Geneva and return to England, arriving in Portsmouth on 8 September. Over the next few months, MS and the pregnant Claire remain in Bath in separate dwellings. Shelley returns to London.
9 Oct Fanny Godwin commits suicide by overdosing on laudanum in Bristol, after trying to see MS and Shelley in Bath.
15 Dec News reaches PBS that Harriet Shelley had committed suicide. She had been missing since 9 November, and her pregnant body was found in the Serpentine river on 10 December.
30 Dec MS and PBS marry at St. Mildred's church, London. Godwin reconciles with his daughter. The Shelleys live with the Hunts in Hampstead over the next several months, and meet Keats. Claire remains in Bath.
1817 12 Jan Claire gives birth Allegra, her daughter by LB. She remains secluded at Bath in order to to keep the child's existence a secret.
18 March The Shelleys move to Marlow, into Albion House. Claire and Allegra join them a week later.
27 March On the grounds that Shelley is an atheist, he is denied custody of his two children with Harriet, Charles and Ianthe.
14 May MS completes Frankenstein
18 July Jane Austen dies at age 42.
2 Sept MS gives birth to a daughter, Clara Everina.
6 Nov History of a Six Weeks' Tour Through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland: With Letters Descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni (London: T Hookham, Jun.; and C. and J. Ollier), written by MS and Shelley, is published anonymously.
1818 1 Jan Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones) is published in three volumes. Both Shelley's publisher, Charles Ollier, and LB's publisher, John Murray, had declined to publish the novel. Reviews of the novel are mixed.
10 Feb After selling Albion House at the end of January, the Shelleys and Claire move to 119 Russell Street, London.
11 March The Shelleys, Claire, Allegra, and two nursemaids—Elise, from Switzerland, who has been William and Clara's nurse, and Milly, now Allegra’s nurse—set off for Italy. They travel from London for Dover, arriving in Calais the next day. They travels across France, staying in Lyons 21-25 March and then on to Italy. They stay in Milan for three weeks in April, visiting Lake Como.
28 April At LB's insistence, Claire sends Allegra to Venice. LB will only allow Claire to visit Allegra if she is accompanied by the Shelleys; he will not see Claire.
7 May The Shelleys travel to Pisa, then to Leghorn on 9 May, where they stay at the Hotel di Malta. In Leghorn, MS meets Maria Gisborne, a friend of her mothers.
11 June The Shelleys and Claire move to Casa Bertini, Bagni di Lucca, a hill town above Lucca, a popular spot for English expats.
14 June MS writes Walter Scott, who had favorably reviewed Frankenstein for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, though he thought Shelley wrote the book. She thanks him for his review and acknowledges herself as the novel's author.
17 Aug Hearing rumors of LB's debauchery, Shelley takes Claire to Venice where she hopes Shelley can persuade LB to return Allegra. LB refuses, but permits the girl to visit them at his villa in Este. On 31 August, at Shelley's somewhat frantic insistence, MS and her children quickly travel to Este—Shelley has lied, leading LB to believe they are already there. MS must pack up their belongings first, an arduous task. She arrives September 5.
24 Sept Clara Everina dies in Venice from the dysentery she had contracted during the hurried journey to Este. MS is devastated.
Sept/Oct The Shelleys and Claire remain at Byron's villa in Este.
5 Nov The Shelley party travels through Ferrara, Bologna, and Rome. After a week in Rome, they depart for Naples on 28 November, arriving on 1 December. MS is depressed.
20 Dec In her journal, MS enters "Correct Frankenstein," possibly correcting the copy that she presented to Mrs. Thomas, an Englishwoman she met in Genoa, by July 1823.
27 Dec An infant, registered on 27 February 1819 as "Elena Adelaide," is born in Naples. Shelley and "Marina Padurin" are listed as the parents. The identity of this child is still a mystery. Some theories claim the girl was Shelley's illegitimate child; other suggest that she was an infant he planned to adopt in order to replace Clara. The Shelleys leave Naples the next day. MS seems to have been completely unaware of the child.
1819 Feb The Shelleys and Claire travel from Naples to Rome; MS gets pregnant with Percy.
7 March The Shelleys move into the Palazzo Verospi, Rome.
7 June William Shelley dies from malaria and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery. The Shelleys leave Rome on 10 June. MS is again devastated; she and Shelley are struggling.
17 June The Shelleys move to Leghorn.
24 June They move to Villa Valsolvano, near Montenero.
Aug MS begins writing Matilda, originally called Fields of Fancy and containing references to Fantasia, her childhood fairy companion. She sends the manuscript to Godwin in 1821, but he refuses to publish it. Matilda remains unpublished until 1959.
2 Oct The Shelleys and Claire move to the Palazzo Marini, Via Valfonda, Florence.
12 Nov MS gives birth to a son, Percy Florence.
1820 26 Jan The Shelleys move to Tre Donzelle, Pisa.
Feb MS finishes Matilda, removing all mention of Fantasia and the Fields of Fancy
March MS begins writing Valperga, which she calls Castruccio, Prince of Lucca. She's had the idea since her days at Marlow.
April/May MS writes her mythological dramas, Proserpine and Midas.
June Paolo Foggi, the Shelley's former servant whom they had dismissed in January 1819, and who had married their servant Elise Duvillard, attempts to blackmail Shelley over the mysterious Neapolitan child, Elena Adelaide. Although his attempts fail, he and Elise do succeed in turning the Hoppners, friends in Venice, against Shelley by claiming the child is Claire's (and Shelley's). On 10 June, Elena Adelaide dies.
June/Oct The Shelleys move back to Bagni di Lucca on 15 June, then relocate to Casa Prinni, at the Bagni San Giuliano, also known as the Bagni di Pisa, on 5 August, and finally to Casa Galetti, Pisa on 29 October.
21 Oct Shelley's cousin, Thomas Medwin, visits the Shelleys in Pisa. Medwin is Shelley’s second cousin who was in school with him at both Syon House and Eton. Shelley did not much like Medwin.
Late Nov The Shelleys meet Emilia Viviani, the beautiful daughter of the governor of Pisa, confined to a convent until her marriage. Shelley develops a passion for the girl and writes Epipsychidion, which he dedicates to her.
1821 19 Jan Through Medwin, the Shelleys meet Edward and Jane Williams, a common-law couple. Edward and Medwin served in the army together in India.
5 March The Shelleys move to Casa Aulla, Pisa.
April Shelley and Edward go to Leghorn to purchase a small 10 foot rowboat equipped with a sail. On the way back, in the middle of the night, in the moonlight, on the Arno, Edward stands up, loses his balance, and capsizes the boat. Shelley cannot swim and for the second time, comes close to drowning. They don’t make it home that night, ending up at an Italian farmhouse. Seeing it as a good omen, Shelley returnd home in high spirits, only to learn that Keats has died in Rome.
8 May The Shelleys return to Bagni di San Giuliano for the summer. The Williamses move to Pugnano, four miles away.
July The first translation of Frankenstein is published in France: Frankenstein; ou le Prométhée Moderne (Paris: Corréard), translated by Jules Saladin.
Late Aug MS finishes Valperga. She corrects and copies the novel through early December. Shelley visits LB in Ravenna—stopping for a secret rendezvous with Claire in Florence—he clears the rumor about Elena, apparently by telling LB the truth about the Naples child. (Medwin is the one who writes the story of this, claiming to have learned it from LB.) He convinces LB to move to Pisa.
25 Oct The Shelleys move to Tre Palazzi di Chiesa, Pisa for the winter.
1 Nov LB arrives in Pisa with his mistress, Teresa Guiccioli.
1822 Jan After much wrangling with Ollier for an advance, the Shelleys send MS's manuscript of Valperga to Godwin for publication, instructing him to keep the revenue from its sales. He delays publication, however, and it does not appear until 1823.
14 Jan Edward John Trelawny, a friend of the Williamses and Medwin, and an admirer of Shelley and LB, arrives in Pisa.
March LB's hunting party (Shelley, Trelawney and others on horseback, Mary and Teresa Gioccioli behind in a carriage) have a confrontation with an Italian soldier. One of LB’s servants stabs the soldier and almost kills him. For several weeks the tension is extreme—the servant is arrested, rumors about the English run rampant.
19 April Allegra Byron dies from typhus in a convent school. Claire comes to Pisa on April 15, concerned and planning to snatch Allegra out of the convent and run away.
23 April Shelley learns of Allegra’s death from LB and determines to send Claire away before telling her the news. On April 26 Claire and MS, who knows—accompanied by Trelawny—go to San Terenzo.
30 April The summer residence at Casa Magni, San Terenzo is established. It can only be reached by water. The Williamses join the Shelleys, and Claire now too, on 1 May.
16 May Shelley’s sailboat, originally The Don Juan, but changed to Ariel, arrives in Lerici. Trelawny has been overseeing the construction of two sailboats, one for LB, one for Shelley. Shelley's has a shallow racing hull and "sails like a witch."
16 June MS miscarries and almost dies from the resulting hemorrhaging. Shelley saves her by getting ice in Lerici.
18 June Shelley writes for poison in his letter of the 18th to Trelawny. He comments that Mary is “better, though still excessively weak.”
1 July Shelley and Edward Williams sail from Lerici to Leghorn in the newly christened Ariel. The Hunts have finally arrived from England. Mary is distressed as they leave, feeling “an intense presentiment of coming evil.” At Shelley’s departure she is overcome by her feelings and begs him not to go. 
8 July They return, heading out from Leghorn in bad weather and, sometime during the voyage, drown in the Gulf of Spezia. Their bodies are found ten days later.
20 July MS, Jane Williams, and Claire return to Pisa.
14 Aug Shelley's body is cremated at Viareggio. Williams' body is cremated the day before.
Sept MS and Jane Williams depart to Casa Negroto, Genoa with LB and Hunt on 11 September. On 17 September, Jane returns to London with a letter of introduction to Hogg. Claire leaves Pisa on 15 September, going to Florence and then to Vienna.
Sept/Dec MS stays on in Genoa with LB and Teressa, transcribing cantos 10-12 of Byron's Don Juan. She also begins to transcribe PBS's poetry in preparation for a posthumous collection.
1823 1 Jan A Tale of the Passions appears in the Liberal, II.
21 Jan Shelley's ashes are interred in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome. Attempts to bury Shelley with his son are thwarted when an adult skeleton is discovered in the child's grave.
19 Feb Valperga: Or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (London: G and W.B. Whittaker) is published in three volumes. Reviews of the novel.
24 Feb LB sends MS a letter from Sir Timothy Shelley, PBS's father, who initially denies MS support and insists that he will only provide for Percy Florence if MS relinquishes custody of him.
23 April Madame D'Houtetot appears in the Liberal, III.
July MS composes her poem, The Choice.
25 July MS and Percy Florence leave Genoa for England, arriving on 25 August.
28 July Presumption; or The Fate of Frankenstein, a play by Richard Brinsley Peake, opens at the English Opera House for a run of 37 performances. MS sees a production on 28 August. Reviews of the play.
30 July Giovanni Villani appears in the Liberal, IV.
11 Aug A second edition of Frankenstein (London: G. and W. B. Whittaker) is published in two volumes. The text is probably corrected by William Godwin, and the title page names Mary W. Shelley as the author.
18 Aug Frankenstein; or, the Demon of Switzerland, a play by Henry M. Milner, opens at the Royal Coberg Theatre for a run of eight performances.
1 Sept Humgumption; or, Dr. Frankenstein and the Hobgoblin of Hoxton, opens at the Royal Coburg Theatre for a run of six performances. Presumption and the Blue Demon opens at the Davis's Royal Amphitheater for a run of two performances.
8 Sept MS and Percy Florence move from the Godwin's residence to 14 Speldhurst Street, Brunswick Square. Also in September, she reconciles with Isabel Baxter Booth.
20 Oct Another Piece of Presumption, by Richard Brinsley Peake, opens at the Adelphi Theatre for a run of nine performances.
27 Nov MS receives an allowance of £100 per year for Percy Florence from Sir Timothy Shelley.
1824 Jan Recollections of Italy appears in the London Magazine, IX.
Feb MS begins writing The Last Man.
March On Ghosts appears in the London Magazine, IX.
April The Bride of Modern Italy appears in the London Magazine, IX.
19 April Lord Byron dies in Greece. MWS sends a tribute to the London Magazine, but it is never published.
June Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley (London: John and Henry L. Hunt), a volume of PBS's unpublished poems, is published. MS edits the volume and writes a signed preface. On 23 June, MS learns that a displeased Sir Timothy Shelley will halt Percy Florence's allowance until she both stops publication and promises not to publish any more of PBS's writings in Sir Timothy's lifetime.
21 June MS and Percy Florence move to 5 Bartholomew Place, Kentish Town, near Jane Williams.
Aug Sir Timothy Shelley increases Percy Florence's allowance to £200.
13 Dec Frank-in-Steam; or, The Modern Promise to Pay opens at the Olympic Theatre for a run of four performances.
1825 Jan MS begins her friendship with Mary Diana Dods, who writes under the pseudonym David Lyndsay.
Feb MS finishes a first draft of The Last Man. By November, 1825, she is copying the manuscript.
25 Jun MS refuses a marriage proposal from American actor, playwright, and manager John Howard Payne.
1826 23 Jan The Last Man (London: Henry Colburn), by the "Author of Frankenstein," is published in three volumes. Reviews of the novel.
10 June Le Monstre et le magicien, by Jean Toussaint Merle and Antoine Nicolas Beraud, opens in Paris at the Théàtre de la Porte Saint-Martin for a run of 96 performances. A translation by James Kerr opens at the New Royal West London Theatre on 9 October for an estimated run of four performances.
11 June Defense of Velluti, a letter that MS signs "Anglo Italicus," appears in the Examiner, no. 958.
3 July The Man and The Monster; or The Fate of Frankenstein, by Henry M. Milner, opens at the Royal Coberg Theatre for a run of eight performances.
17 July MS meets Thomas Moore and agrees to help him compose a biography of Lord Byron. She works on this project off and on over the next few years, and The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life is published in 1830.
5 Aug/
3 Sept		 MS spends a month at Brighton with Jane Williams.
14 Sept Charles Bysshe Shelley, the son of PBS and Harriet Shelley, dies, making Percy Florence heir apparent to the baronetcy.
Oct The English in Italy, MS's review of Lord Normanby's, The English in Italy, Continental Adventures, a Novel, and Anna Browmwell Jameson's, Diary of an Ennuyee, appears in the Westminster Review, VI.
Dec A Visit to Brighton, inspired by MS's August journey, appears in the London Magazine, n.s. VI.
1827 Feb MS establishes a friendship with Isabel, Julia, and Rosa Robinson during the first of many visits to the Robinson's Park Cottage in Paddington. Isabel Robinson will later "marry" Mary Diana Dods, who assumes the identity of "Sholto Douglas."
Spring Jane Williams and Thomas Hogg begin living as a married couple. Afterwards, she calls herself Jane Williams Hogg, even though she is still legally married to her first husband.
May Sir Timothy increases Percy Florence's allowance to £250.
13 July MS records in her journal her discovery of Jane Williams Hogg's disloyalty. Isabel Robinson had informed MS of the slanderous stories Jane has been spreading that vilified MS as a cold, unfeeling wife. MWS does not confront her until 11 February 1828.
24 July MS and Percy Florence join Isabel Robinson and her illegitimate child in Sompting. They relocate to Arundel on 3 September, and Mary Diana Dods, now posing as Sholto Douglas, joins them. With the help of John Howard Payne, MS assists the Douglases in getting the passports they need to elope to Paris.
26 Sept MS writes in a letter to Godwin that she is writing each morning; the work is presumably The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck. She writes the novel over the next two years, soliciting information from Godwin, John Murray, Prosper Mérimée, Thomas Crofton Croker, and Sir Walter Scott.
25 Oct MS returns to London and moves into 51 George Street, Portman Square.
1828 25 March Percy Florence enters Edward Slater's Gentlemen's Academy, Church Street, Kensington.
11 April MS visits the Douglases in Paris. She contracts smallpox soon after her arrival. During her visit, she meets Prosper Mérimée and General Layfayette.
26 May MS returns to England, remaining in Dover and Hastings through July to recover from her smallpox.
9 Aug MS visits the Robinsons in Park Cottage, Paddington, remaining there throughout most of the year.
Nov/Dec Two of MS's stories are published anonymously in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXIX: The Sisters of Albano and Ferdinando Eboli: A Tale.
24 Dec MS moves to 4 Oxford Terrace, Edgewater Road; Claire Clairmont resides with her until April, 1829.
1829 Jan Illyrian Poems--Feudal Scenes, MS's review of Prosper Mérimée's, La Guzla, ou Choir de Poesies Illyriques recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Croatie et l'Herzegowine; and La Jacquerie; Feudal Scenes, followed by the Family of Carvajal, a Drama, is published in the Westminster Review, X.
13 May MS moves to 33 Somerset Street, Portman Square.
1 June Sir Timothy increases Percy Florence's allowance to £300.
July MS's review, Modern Italy, appears in the Westminster Review, II.
Oct MS's review, Loves of the Poets, appears in the Westminster Review, XI.
Nov/Dec MS copies and revises Perkin Warbeck.
Nov/Dec Three stories by The Author of Frankenstein appear in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX: The Mourner, The Evil Eye, and The False Rhyme.
Dec The Paris Galignani edition of The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats, a pirated work edited by Cyrus Redding and including biographical sketches of the poets, is published. MS had provided Redding with information on PBS earlier that year.
1830 May MS's review of William Godwin's Cloudesley appears in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, XXVIII.
13 May The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley) is published in three volumes.
July MS and Percy Florence spend two weeks at Southend.
Oct A review, believed to be by MS, of Mérimée's 1572 Chronique du Temps de Charles IX appears in the Westminster Review, XIII.
Nov/Dec Two stories by The Author of Frankenstein appear in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI : Transformation, and The Swiss Peasant. In addition, three poems in this volume have also been attributed to her, although only the first is signed Mary W. Shelley: Absence, Dirge, and A Night Scene.
1831   MS anonymously edits and arranges publication for Edward Trelawny's memoirs, Adventures of a Younger Son (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley).
1 April William Godwin's novel Caleb Williams is reissued in a one- volume edition by Colburn and Bentley. MS writes a biographical sketch, Memoirs of William Godwin.
31 Oct The 1831 edition of Frankenstein (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley) is published as part of Bentley's Standard Novels. the title page names "Mary W. Shelley" as the author. This one-volume version includes several revisions, although she claims, in a new Introduction, that they are "confined to such parts as are mere adjuncts to the story, leaving the core and substance of it untouched."
Nov/Dec The Dream, a story by The Author of Frankenstein, appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXII.
Nov/Dec Proserpine, a Mythological Drama in Two Acts, which MS had written in 1820, is published in The Winter's Wreath for 1832.
1832 Jan MS's review of James Fenimore Cooper's, The Bravo appears in the Westminster Review, XVI. Because the journal refuses to publish her review of Edward Bulwer's, Eugene Aram, she stops publishing her work in the Review.
15 Jun MS and Percy Florence spend three months in Sandgate, where they are joined by Trelawny and his daughter Julia. MS and Percy Florence return to Somerset Street on 8 October.
21 July/
25 Aug 		Thomas Medwin publishes his Memoirs of Shelley in the Athenæum; several of the installments mention MS.
Aug/Sep The Pole, a story written by Claire, edited by MWS, and erroneously attributed to The Author of Frankenstein, appears in the August and September Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée.
8 Sept William Godwin, Jr., MWS's half brother, dies of cholera.
29 Sept Percy Florence enters boarding school at Harrow.
Nov/Dec MWS publishes a poem in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIII: Stanzas ("I must forget thy dark eyes' love fraught gaze"). The issue also contains two stories by The Author of Frankenstein: The Brother and Sister: An Italian Story and The Invisible Girl.
1833   The Smuggler and His Family, by Mrs. Shelley appears in Original Compositions in Prose and Verse.
May MS moves to Harrow so Percy Florence can become a day-student and reduce the expense of his schooling.
Nov/Dec The Mortal Immortal, by The Author of Frankenstein, appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIV.
1834 Jan Edward Moxon writes MS to propose an edition of PBS's works. She responds on 22 January that when "family reasons" no longer hinder her, she plans to republish her late husband's poems, along with some letters and prose. She also states that she would not write a biographical sketch of PBS, but might wish to select a person to do so.
April The printer misplaces thirty-six pages from Volume 3 of Lodore. MS works into early June rewriting them.
Nov/Dec The Trial of Love, by The Author of Frankenstein, appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXV. The Elder Son, by Mrs. Shelley, appears in Heath's Book of Beauty. 1835.
1835 Feb Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol 1 (of 3) (London: Longman, Orme, Brown [etc.]), is published as part of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner.
7 April Lodore (London: Richard Bentley) is published in three volumes and attributed to The Author of Frankenstein.
Oct Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol 2 (London: Longman, Orme, Brown) is published.
8 Nov MS writes about Falkner to Maria Gisborne.
1836 4 Feb Jane Williams Hogg gives birth to a daughter, Prudentia Sarah Hogg; MS will become the godmother.
23 March MS removes Percy Florence from Harrow, employs a private tutor, and moves with her son to 14 North Bank, Regent's Park.
7 April William Godwin dies and is buried on 14 April in the St. Pancras churchyard, close to Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. In his will, he leaves his manuscripts and letters to MS with the request that she chose those worthy to print and destroy the rest. The proceeds of any publications are to benefit Mrs. Godwin.
19 July Henry Colburn agrees to pay Mary Jane Godwin 350 guineas for Godwin's memoirs; MS begins work on the project, which she never completes. Mrs. Godwin also received £50 from the Royal Literary Fund and, thanks to MS's appeal to Lord Melbourne, £300 from the Royal Bounty Fund.
10 Oct MS travels to Brighton to convalesce from a recurring malady.
Nov/Dec The Parvenue by Mrs. Shelley appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXVII.
1837 2 Feb MS returns to London.
Feb Falkner. A Novel (London: Saunders and Otley) is published in three volumes; the title page attributes the novel to The Author of Frankenstein, The Last Man, &c.
March MS moves to 24 South Audley Street.
Sept/Oct Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain and Portugal, Vol 3 (London: Longman, Orme, Brown) is published.
10 Oct Percy Florence enters Trinity College, Cambridge.
Nov MS moves to 41d Park Street, Grovenor Square.
Nov/Dec The Pilgrims appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX.
1838 July Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, Vol 1 (of 2) (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, [etc.]) of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner is published.
Aug Sir Timothy Shelley permits MS to publish Shelley's poems, provided that the works contain no memoirs of his son. MS gets around this restriction by writing biographical notes for the poems.
Nov/Dec MS publishes two poems in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX: Stanzas ("How like a star you rose upon my life") and Stanzas ("O come to me in dreams, my love!"). The issue also contains a story: Euphrasia: A Tale of Greece by Mrs. Shelley.
1839 Jan/May MS's four-volume edition of Poetical Words of Percy Bysshe Shelley (London: Edward Moxon), with her preface and notes, is published; she dedicates the edition to Percy Florence.
March MS undergoes a period of severe illness, possibly brought about by the strain of editing PBS's poems. She is frequently ill for the last 10 years of her life.
18 March MS moves to Layton House, Putney.
1 Aug Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, Vol 2 (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, [etc.]) is published.
Nov MS's one volume edition of Poetical Words of Percy Bysshe Shelley (London: Edward Moxon) is published.
Dec MS's edition of Percy Shelley's Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments (London: Edward Moxon) is published in two volumes.
1840 25 March MS moves to 3 The Rise, Richmond.
5 June MS, Percy Florence, and his friends leave for a tour the Continent. The group travels through Germany and Switzerland, spends July and August in Cadenabbia, and then proceeeds to Milan, arriving on 11 September. Percy leaves for England with his friends a week later.
22 June Arrive in Paris for the first visit, with Percy and friends.
10 Oct thru Dec MS arrives in Paris from Milan and remains until the end of the year.
1841 11 Jan MS moves to 84 Park Street, London.
Feb Percy Florence graduates from Trinity College, Cambridge. Sir Timothy increases his allowance to £400.
17 May MS moves to 35 Half Moon Street.
17 June Mary Jane Godwin dies.
1842 June 30 to Aug 1843 MS, Percy Florence, and friends tour the Continent again, this time visiting Kissingen, Berlin, Dresden, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Paris.
July/Aug MS visits Claire in Paris, where Claire introduces her to a group of Italian exiled revolutionaries, including Ferdinando Luigi Gatteschi.
1843 Sept MS moves to White Cottage, Putney.
1844 24 April Sir Timothy Shelley dies; Percy Florence inherits the estate and title.
July Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 (London: Edward Moxon) is published in two volumes.
1845 Sept Ferdinando Gatteschi, whom MS had aided financially and whose writing she had encouraged, attempts to blackmail her with her letters to him. Through the help of Percy Florence's friend Alexander Knox, the Italian police destroy the letters on 11 October.
Oct George Byron, an unknown correspondent who claimed to be Byron's son, offers to sell MS several letters written by PBS and herself. In February 1846, he threatens to publish letters from both PBS and Harriet Shelley, but is dissuaded when MS threatens an injunction against the publication.
1846 March MS moves to 24 Chester Square, Pimlico.
1848 22 June Percy Florence marries Jane St. John.
Aug MWS, Percy Florence, and Jane move to Field Place. In November, they also take an apartment in Warwick Square.
1849 May Charles Clairmont's daughter, Clara Clairmont, visits MS at Field Place. There, she meets Alexander Knox.
16 June Alexander Knox and Clara Clairmont marry; this creates an estrangement between Claire and the Shelleys.
26 Dec Frankenstein; or, The Model Man, by William and Robert Brough, opens at the Adelphi Theatre for a run of 26 performances.
1851 1 Feb MS dies at age 53 in her home at Chester Square, London. Lady Jane Shelley arranges for the remains of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin to be moved from St. Pancras to the churchyard at St. Peters, Bournemouth, and on 8 February, MS is buried between her parents.
1859 28 Aug Leigh Hunt dies.
1862 21 Aug Thomas Jefferson Hogg dies.
1879 19 March Claire Clairmont dies.
1881 13 Aug Edward John Trelawny dies.
1884 Nov Jane Williams Hogg dies.
1889 5 Dec Percy Florence Shelley dies.
1922   MS's drama Midas, which she wrote in 1820, is published in Proserpine & Midas: Two unpublished Mythological Dramas by Mary Shelley, ed. A.H. Koszul (London: Humphrey Milford).
1959   MS's 1819-1829 novel Mathilda, ed. Elizabeth Nitchie (Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press), which she wrote in 1819-1820, is published.