William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. IX. 1812-1819
Mary Shelley, Diary, 8-12 October 1816
“[Bath] Thursday, 8th October, 1815. Letter from
Fanny. . . . . .
“Wednesday 9th. . . . . In the evening a very
alarming letter comes from Fanny.
Shelley goes immediately to Bristol.
We sit up for him until two in the morning when he returns, but brings no
particular news.
“[Written later, and in different ink,] Fanny died this night.
“Thursday 10th. Shelley goes again to Bristol, and obtains more certain trace.
Work and read. He returns at 11 o’clock.
“Friday 11th. He sets off to Swansea. Work and read.
“Saturday 12th. He returns with the worst account; a
miserable day. Two letters from papa.
Buy mourning, and work in the evening.”
Fanny Imlay Godwin (1794-1816)
The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and Gilbert Imlay; she lived in the Godwin household
and died a suicide.
William Godwin (1756-1836)
English novelist and political philosopher; author of
An Inquiry
concerning the Principles of Political Justice (1793) and
Caleb
Williams (1794); in 1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
English poet, with Byron in Switzerland in 1816; author of
Queen
Mab (1813),
The Revolt of Islam (1817),
The Cenci and
Prometheus Unbound (1820), and
Adonais (1821).
