Shelley's Gothic Sublimity

Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, and Claire Clairmont traveled from England to France and Switzerland twice, once in 1814 and again in 1816. The group spent the first of these trips traipsing through the Swiss Alps, and the second at Lord Byron’s summer estate on Lake Geneva. The spectacular landscapes surrounding the glaciers of Chamonix and Mont-Blanc, overlooking Lake Geneva, inspired both Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin Shelley’s theories of Nature’s sublimity, which becomes a prominent theme in both authors’ writings following these tours. This theme first surfaces in their collaborative 1817 publication, History of a Six Weeks’ Tour, which includes travel journals from the 1814 tour, Percy Shelley’s poem “Mont Blanc,” letters written during the trips, and essays grappling with political issues of the time. Mary Shelley’s later works, Frankenstein and Matilda, expound upon the theories first presented in Six Weeks’ Tour, using Nature as both character and metaphor. The tourists’ time at Lord Byron’s estate on Lake Geneva, the destination of their 1816 tour, inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Her revolutionary novel incorporates and relies upon landscapes from both tours to contrast Nature’s sublimity against the social, political, and scientific revolutions of nineteenth century England. Mary Shelley continued to utilize nature as metaphor, character, and theme throughout her writing career. Shelley’s Nature commands awe and reverence, while remaining indifferent, even antagonistic, to human plights. Victor Frankenstein’s creation escapes to the beautiful, but hostile, Swiss Alps while Matilda dies alone on a Scottish plane. Despite the reverence both Victor Frankenstein and Matilda feel towards Nature’s beauty, both fall ill—terminally ill in Matilda’s case—after exposure to the elements.



Shelley’s descriptions of nature evoke breathtaking images, while her characters are injured, sickened, and even die as a result of exposure to storms, severe climates or dangerous topography. As Nature is both a driving force and a silent character in much of Shelley’s work, I want to see the landscapes that claimed her devotion. Though she, Percy Shelley and Claire Clairmont toured through France as well as Switzerland, it was Mary Shelley’s time in the Swiss Alps and on Lake Geneva that is directly referenced in so much of her writing. I hope to follow her movements through the Alps, stopping where she stopped and seeing the landscapes that commanded her gaze.


Excerpt from “A Chronology of Mary Shelly” published in Oxford World’s Classics 1998 edition of Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus:


1814 (May) Returns to Skinner Street; meets Shelley again (28 July) Mary, accompanied by her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, elopes with Shelley. Travel through France and Switzerland, and return to England (August-September)


1815 (February) A girl-child born prematurely to Mary and Shelley, but dies a few days later (August) Settled with Shelley at Bishops Gate, Windsor (September) On the recommendation of Percy’s physician, William Lawrence, the Shelleys take a journey by river to Oxford


1816 (January) A son, William, born (May) Mary and Shelley, with Claire Clairmont, leave England for Geneva, where they meet Lord Byron (who has already formed a liaison with Claire) and his physician Dr. Polidori (June) Mary, Shelley, and Clair setle at the Maison Chappuis, at Montalègre, close to Byron at the Villa Diodati at Cologny, near Geneva. Frankenstein begun (July) Expedition to Chamonix and the Mer de Glace (September) Return to England (October) Suicide of Fanny Imlay, Mary’s half-sister (December) Suicide of Shelley’s first wife, Harriet. Mary and Shelley married at St Mildred’s Church, Bread Street, London (30 December)


1817 (March) Move to Marlow. Shelley refused custody of his children by his first marriage (May) Frankenstein completed (September) daughter Clara born History of a Six’ Weeks Tour published


1818 (March) Mary and Shelley, with Claire and the children, leave for Italy. Frankenstein published (June) Settled for two months at Bagni di Lucca (September) Move to Este. The baby Clara dies in Venice. Visits to Byron in Venice (November) Journey south to Rome (December) Settle in Naples for the winter