824 Why Did Mary Shelley Try to Erase Her? The Claire Clairmont Story (with Emily Franklin) | My Last Book with Mathelinda Nabugodi
About this episode
This episode explores the story of Claire Clairmont, Mary Shelley's stepsister, and her overlooked role in the creation of Frankenstein.
It's an often-told, momentous story: how in the summer of 1816, four friends, including famed Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, along with Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley) and Byron's doctor John Polidori, gathered in a Swiss villa and decided to tell each other ghost stories to pass the time. Mary Shelley began to write Frankenstein, and John Polidori wrote what would become the first modern vampire tale. It's hard to imagine a more spectacular outcome for four people--except that there were not four people involved. There were five. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist Emily Franklin about her new book Love & Other Monsters, which narrates the story from the point of view of the fifth member of the group, Mary Shelley's stepsister Claire Clairmont, whom Mary tried to erase from history. PLUS Mathelinda Nabugodi (The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson…
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