A 2017 dramatization (although not by much) about the family life of Mary Shelley.
It begins with her as a girl who enjoys books, the daughter of an author who falls in love with another writer, Percy Bysshe Shelley. They enter a whirlwind romance, which gets deconstructed as a bit less than ideal through various personal problems as the path to her writing the novel Frankenstein grows nearer, while she works through her family relationships.
The story contains elements of gothic romance, and drama.
Stars Elle Fanning as Mary, Douglas Booth as Percy, Tom Sturridge as Lord Byron, Bel Powley as Claire Clairmont, Stephen Dillane as William Godwin, and Ben Hardy as John William Polidori.
Tropes:
- Adapted Out: Mary's older maternal half-sister, a real-life member of her household, is neither seen nor mentioned.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Claire falls in love with Lord Byron and gets pregnant by him, but finds out that he just sees her as a dalliance and doesn't like the idea of love.
- Artistic License – History:
- While most accounts do suggest that Percy Shelley was a very difficult man to live with, Mary was in reality just as on-board with an open marriage as he was and had a number of lovers, and wasn't the victimized wife waiting at home as portrayed in the film.
- Lord Byron in reality wasn’t nearly the callous douche to his friends that the movie makes him out to be and by multiple accounts he was a genuinely good friend and host to Percy, Mary and Polidori. While it is true that he treated Claire poorly, he did conversely really care about the upbringing of their illegitimate child whereas the film writes it off as an afterthought from him.
- While looking at The Nightmare by painter Henry Fuseli, Mary comments that her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was once in love with Fuseli and attempted suicide when he left her for another woman. In reality, Fuseli was already married when Wollstonecraft met him, with his wife persuading him to break off his relationship with Wollstonecraft (Wollstonecraft later stated they never had a physical relationship, but she did have intense feelings for him). It was actually being rejected and abandoned by Gilbert Imlay, the father of her eldest daughter, that contributed to Wollstonecraft's suicide attempt (she later made a second attempt the same year). The situation was also a bit more complex than her just taking the break-up badly.note
- Attempted Rape: One of Shelley's friends makes a somewhat forceful, unwelcome pass on Mary while visiting.
- Byronic Hero: Shelley has shades of this.
- Catapult Nightmare: Mary, when she has her inspiration for Frankenstein.
- Cool Big Sis: Mary, to her stepsister Claire and half-brother William, reading them stories with playful expressions, showing them concern and attention and later letting Claire live with her and Shelley.
- Deadly Distant Finale: The film's epilogue describes the (in many cases premature) deaths of the various core characters.
- Depraved Bisexual: Lord Byron gets a bit of this, as per real-life.
- Gone Horribly Right: Mary's father sending her to Scotland to make new life experiences leads to her meeting and falling for Shelley, the last thing he wanted.
- I Have No Son!: When Mary announces her intention to leave with Shelley her father brings this up (later he is shown to still have love for her but they remain distant).Mr. Goodwin: If you ever see Mr. Shelley again prepare to lose the love of a father forever.
- Last-Name Basis: Percy, for the most part.
- Hollywood Atheist: Shelley wrote a paper promoting atheism and Mary's father approves, describe it as something to stir the world out of its "delusion."
- The Insomniac: Byron says that Dr. Polidori is treating him for a sleep disorder.
- It's All My Fault: Shelley seems horrified and upset upon hearing that his ex-wife committed suicide.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Mary's mother died from complications from her birth, although no one seems to hold it against her except Mary herself.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Shelley suspects Mary of having an affair with Polidori, and shows himself less calm about the idea of open marriage than he'd claimed.
- The Mistress: Technically Mary for most of the film considering that Shelley is still married to Harriet for a while.
- Nice Guy: Lord Byron's physician, Polidori, who gives Mary encouraging and realistic words about her work and rebukes her husband for his treatment of her.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When Mary's father applauds the author of Frankenstein and its themes while she's present in a way that implies he recognizes her authorship and is apologizing to her.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The Shelley's first daughter dies in infancy.
- Perpetual Frowner: Mary, after she loses her first child.
- Pet the Dog: Byron does approve of Mary's intellectualism, calling her different from other women in a platonic sense and saying he looks forward to reading her work someday. He also futilely attempts to give Polidori the credit for his novel after Byron's publisher publishes it as Byron's, although that is more because he sees it as a mediocre work that he doesn't want the credit for.
- Polyamory: Mary is chagrined to find out that her husband is a believer in open marriage.
- Porn Stache: Lord Byron's mustache comes across like this and he's a bit of a creepy figure.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mary has nothing kind to say to the publisher who patronizes her work and insinuates that Percy was the one who really wrote it.
- Riches to Rags: The Shelleys and Claire, after Percy's father cuts him off.
- Slut-Shaming: Byron throws this out in response to Mary calling him out for his treatment of Claire.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Zigzagged, and subjected to viewer interpretation but Shelley does seem to have strong feelings for Mary but is married with a child when they meet, yet claims he and his wife have been separated and irreconcilable for a long time, something which is implied to be true (albeit quite possibly his fault).
- Take That!: Polidori writes The Vampyre, perhaps the first ever Vampire Fiction, as an insulting allegory towards Byron, something he openly admits.
- Truth in Television: Most of the character relationships are true to life.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Percy is supportive of Mary's writings and helps her get them published, although he does initially feel that they're too dark. While Mary suspects that he might steal the credit for it, he does ensure that she gets it after the story is published anonymously.
- Wicked Stepmother: While sometimes making good points Mary's stepmother is a stern, jealous person who is resented by both Mary and her own daughter.
- What You Are in the Dark: Shelley giving Mary the credit for the book, publicly at a time when she was there, listening but he was unaware of that.
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Write What You Know: Mary conveys a lot of death and betrayal that she and Claire have felt into the characters of her book.
