Mary Shelley: The Gothic Queen It is commonplace for famous authors to write about things that they know about, and have experienced in their own lives. Many of the situations and characters in Mary Shelley's works can be traced back to things that happened in and people that had an influence on her own life. Shelley's writings were influenced by her parents, as well as the nineteenth century into which she was born. Several critical …showed first 75 words of 2130 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2130 total…thousands" (Mary Shelley, Desert Fairy 1). "She was a member of the group of literary women who influenced the direction of prose fiction in the post-French Revolutionary world" (Ball, Dictionary of Literary Biography 292). Whatever her shortcomings in terms of modern narratives and stylistic expectations, Mary Shelley remains an important figure in the history of prose fiction and a c! entral figure in the history of women's writing (Ball, 292). Truly, she is the gothic queen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**