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Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) is often remembered for his marriage to Mary Shelley, the visionary author of 'Frankenstein,' or as one of the most influential romantic poets in the English language. Yet, his legacy encompasses much more than these two aspects.
Shelley was no stranger to controversy, known for his radical political views and for publishing bold pamphlets. He had a fascination with the occult, but he was also a profound philosopher, frequently surrounded by some of the most renowned literary figures of his time. In his brief and tragic life, Shelley achieved more than many could in a much longer span. Below are ten of the most astonishing and unsettling facts about Percy Bysshe Shelley's life.
10. Obsessed with the Supernatural and Plagued by Hallucinations
Shelley was born into an affluent and influential family. His father, a baronet, expected him to inherit his substantial estate and take his place in the British Houses of Parliament. As a child, Shelley was already known for his creativity and sense of playfulness, which made him beloved by his five siblings. He often entertained them with imaginative games and ghostly tales, but his fascination with eerie and mysterious matters went well beyond simple storytelling.
Despite his youth, Shelley would often wander out at night, urging his sisters to don eerie costumes and participate in fire-lit rituals. Among his many pranks at Eton College—such as shocking a master with electricity and blowing up a tree—one night he was found encircled by blue flames, attempting to summon the devil. Shelley later became convinced that the devil was following him during his late-night walks, and the hallucinations of figures trailing him would haunt him for the rest of his life.
9. An Unusual Daily Routine and Minimal Sleep
After Eton, Shelley moved on to Oxford University, where he adopted an intense and eccentric daily schedule. It’s said that he would read for up to sixteen hours each day. His friend, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, remarked that Shelley could be found reading at all hours and in all places, even while walking the busy streets of London. His reading spanned across science and philosophy, and he constantly sought to deepen his knowledge in these fields, regardless of whether they related to his academic work.
However, his day didn’t end after the sixteen hours of reading. Allegedly, Shelley would only sleep for half an hour each night, spending the remainder of his time conducting experiments. His room, according to Hogg, resembled 'primeval chaos,' with burn marks on the surfaces. Scientific equipment, books, clothes, and even pistols were scattered across the room. The staff assigned to tidy up were never thanked for their futile efforts. In one instance, Shelley even shocked one of their children with electricity.
8. Expelled from Oxford University Due to His Atheism
Oxford University should have been the perfect environment for someone like Shelley, who, as the writer William Michael Rossetti described, possessed 'white-hot intellectual passion.' However, despite the minimal academic demands, Shelley couldn’t even last a year at the university. His duties were simple—meet with his tutor once a term, translate an article into Latin weekly, and attend chapel daily. As an outspoken atheist, Shelley struggled with the latter, and his lack of belief ultimately led to his expulsion.
During their Christmas break, Shelley and Hogg teamed up to produce a provocative pamphlet titled 'The Necessity of Atheism.' A local bookstore agreed to sell it, but that wasn't enough for Shelley. He sent copies to all the college heads, all of whom were clergymen, as well as several bishops. While the pamphlet did not explicitly name its authors, their identities were well-known, and Shelley was soon called before university officials. He refused to either confirm his authorship or disavow the pamphlet, and as a result, he was expelled. Ironically, Shelley's later literary success gave him a sense of triumph, and in 1893, the university erected a monument in his honor.
7. Unusual Eating Habits and a 'Pythagorean' Diet
An Oxford contemporary once described Shelley as surviving on 'arsenic, acqua-fortis [and] half-an-hour's sleep in the night.' While he did accidentally ingest arsenic during an experiment, it was likely not part of his regular diet. Nonetheless, Shelley had some peculiar eating habits.
At university, Shelley became known for consuming vast amounts of bread during his walks around town, sometimes eating pounds of it in a single outing. If that wasn’t enough, he would carry raisins in his pockets. After leaving the university, guests visiting him and his first wife were occasionally offered only penny buns to eat. On other occasions, Shelley would forget to eat altogether.
After leaving Oxford, Shelley adhered to a 'Pythagorean' diet, a form of vegetarianism, for the rest of his short life. Though he occasionally slipped from this strict regimen, he passionately advocated for vegetarianism in an essay he penned in 1813, describing meat as 'slow but certain poison.' His ideas inspired others, including the playwright George Bernard Shaw, who suggested the diet should be called 'Shelleyism.'
6. Scandals That Nearly Cost Him His Family Wealth
As the eldest of his siblings, Percy Shelley was set to inherit his family’s wealth, estate, and parliamentary seat. However, his radical beliefs almost led to him losing it all. After his expulsion from Oxford, Shelley’s father could have helped him return, but only if he renounced his views and affirmed his Christian faith. Shelley refused, leading to his father’s withdrawal of support.
Shelley’s life took a turn for the more scandalous. At 19, he won the heart of 15-year-old Harriet Westbrook, who soon shared his radical beliefs, such as the idea that God was dead and that laws were merely inconveniences. This caused her father to disown her, and she was expelled from school and abandoned by her friends. Shelley’s response was to elope with her and marry her. It was around this time that his literary career began, with the publication of 'Queen Mab.'
As his reputation as a poet grew, Shelley became more entrenched in radical circles. Eventually, he decided that Harriet was no longer radical enough for him, and he abandoned her while she was pregnant with their second child. Between his expulsion from Oxford and this betrayal, Shelley severed all remaining ties with his father.
5. The Influence of Frankenstein’s Author Led Shelley to Flee with Her
Shelley, influenced by philosopher William Godwin’s ideas, had initially proposed a 'free-love union' to Harriet, only to be rejected. In 1814, Godwin invited Shelley to dinner, hoping to secure financial help in exchange for his guidance. However, he didn’t anticipate that his daughters, particularly his young, intellectual Mary, would be captivated by the visiting celebrity poet.
Mary, just 16 years old and educated to think philosophically, enchanted Shelley during their walks to the grave of her mother, the renowned Mary Wollstonecraft. She confessed her love for him, which Shelley reciprocated. When he sought her father’s blessing, he was taken aback by Godwin’s anger. Despite his own anti-marriage stance in his writings, Godwin couldn’t approve of their union without formal marriage.
Shelley vowed not to pursue the relationship any further but then staged a suicide attempt and threatened to shoot both himself and Mary if they could not be together. With help from Mary’s half-sister Claire, the two fled to France. Mary was disowned by her father, but she and Shelley continued to live by Godwin’s earlier ideas on unmarried love.
4. The Mysterious Death of His First Wife
In December of 1816, Percy Shelley received word from an old acquaintance that his estranged wife, Harriet, had been found dead, her body floating in the Serpentine in London. There were no signs of violence, and it was quickly determined to be suicide. The cause, according to a report in The Times, was 'a lack of honour in her own conduct.' At the time, Harriet was pregnant, but it had been two years since Shelley had left her, and she had since given birth to their second child.
Since Shelley and Harriet had never finalized a divorce, Harriet’s taking a new lover would have been seen as scandalous. Despite the shock of losing someone close to him, Shelley coldly remarked that there was 'little to regret.' Three weeks later, Shelley married Mary, who had reconciled with her father. Shelley also managed to claim part of his inheritance in the process.
Harriet had previously alluded to suicide and had even left a note behind, but some have speculated that her death may have been the result of foul play. Several people had reasons for wanting her gone: Thomas Hogg, who had been infatuated with her, was repeatedly rejected; the father of her third child may have wished to avoid a scandal; and her death cleared the path for William Godwin’s desire to see Shelley marry his daughter.
3. His Heart Remained Intact and Was Preserved by His Friends for Years
The story of Shelley didn’t simply end with his death. Instead, a strange battle erupted among his friends over his remains. Initially, Lord Byron expressed a desire to keep Shelley’s skull, but a fellow friend denied his request, citing the rumor that Byron had once used a skull as a drinking cup. Then, at the funeral, after Shelley’s wine-soaked body had been reduced to ashes on the beach, his heart mysteriously remained untouched by the flames.
The heart, which appeared to glow with a bright blue flame, emerged largely unscathed, a phenomenon that some doctors believe was due to its calcification. While Mary had hoped to keep the heart, another friend, Leigh Hunt, claimed it for himself, preserving it in wine. According to Lord Byron, Hunt even wrote sonnets about the heart.
When the heart was eventually returned to Mary, she is said to have carried it with her, wrapped in silk. This detail certainly adds a romantic touch to Shelley’s story, but there is a final twist—it may not have been Shelley’s heart at all, but his liver. Proponents of this theory point to a 19th-century article suggesting that a liver, especially one waterlogged, is more fire-resistant than a heart.
2. Died During a Sudden Storm
Despite being unable to swim, Shelley and Byron enjoyed sailing together. Later, they traveled to Italy, where Shelley had his own boat built, naming it Don Juan after Byron’s famous poem. The seas they sailed on were notorious for sudden, fierce storms. On one occasion, when a storm caught them at sea, Shelley resigned himself to his fate and asked Byron not to attempt a rescue. On that particular day, Byron did not need to.
However, the Don Juan sank in another storm in 1822, leading to the drowning of 29-year-old Shelley and his friend Edward Williams. It seems that Shelley once again accepted his fate, as a ship captain reported seeing one of the men, most likely Shelley, holding the other back from lowering the sails.
Shelley’s body eventually washed up on shore, and was identified by a book in his pocket, as his face had been consumed by dogfish. Just like with Harriet's death, many found it difficult to accept the simplicity of the story. Rumors swirled of a potential murder and a deathbed confession from a fisherman, but none of these claims were ever substantiated.
1. Part of an Intellectual Clique in Geneva Known as 'The League of Incest'
Despite Shelley, Mary, and Mary’s stepsister, Claire Claremont, having essentially exiled themselves, they remained in close contact with some of the most prominent literary figures of the time. The trio stayed in a villa in Switzerland, hosted by the notorious poet Lord Byron, whose reputation for scandal overshadowed even Shelley’s. Byron had numerous affairs, including one with his half-sister, and the phrase 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know' was coined by one of his lovers to describe him.
Public gossip ran wild about what Shelley, Byron, and the two young women might be doing inside the villa. Moralizers gave the group the unflattering nickname 'the League of Incest,' and curious tourists in Geneva even rented telescopes to catch a glimpse of the goings-on inside. Some of what they suspected was, in fact, true.
Byron eventually fathered a child with Claire, a child many assumed was Shelley’s. But the most significant event during this time was the infamous ghost story contest, which led Mary to pen Frankenstein. Some believe Percy Shelley was the inspiration for Victor Frankenstein, while others argue it was Byron who influenced her creation.
