Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer. She gained fame for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which has become a cornerstone of Gothic literature and is often heralded as a precursor to science fiction. Shelley also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. She was the daughter of political philosopher William Godwin and philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary's mother died shortly after her birth, and she was raised by her father who provided her with a rich, albeit informal education, encouraging her to adopt his anarchist political theories. Her relationship with her stepmother, Mary Jane Clairmont, was strained. At the age of sixteen, Mary began a romance with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. They eloped to France and traveled through Europe, and upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with Percy's child. The couple faced social ostracism, financial difficulties, and the tragedy of losing their prematurely born daughter.

Following the death of Percy Shelley's first wife, the couple married in 1816. That same year, they spent a summer with Lord Byron and John William Polidori near Geneva, where Mary conceived the idea for Frankenstein. In 1818, the Shelleys moved to Italy, where they faced the death of two more children before Mary gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. Tragedy struck again in 1822 when Percy Shelley drowned in a boating accident. Afterward, Mary Shelley returned to England to focus on raising her son and her writing career. She continued to face health challenges and likely passed away from a brain tumor at age 53.

Shelley's literary contributions have been reevaluated and appreciated more fully in contemporary scholarship. Her novels, including historical works like Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the apocalyptic The Last Man (1826), and other later novels like Lodore (1835) and Falkner (1837), have gained recognition. Her travel writing in Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–1846) showcase an enduring political radicalism and a belief in cooperative and sympathetic family practices as a means to reform society.