Lita and Mary

h1 January 18th, 2018 by jules

I wanted to write about Mary Shelley for over a decade after I learned that she was a pregnant teenage run-away when she wrote her novel, Frankenstein. That blew me away. Why did I not know more about her life when she should have been an incredible role model to young women? We’ve all heard the popular myth that Frankenstein was conceived spontaneously on a stormy night when the poet Lord Byron dared a small party of fellow expatriates to write ghost stories. But the myth strips away the identity of the brilliant young woman who wrote one of the most influential novels of the Romantic era and places credit for its inspiration in the hands of a man. Countless events in Mary’s life before and after that evening played a much greater role in the horror novel’s creation.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk with author-illustrator Lita Judge, pictured here, about her new book about Mary Shelley (and her first YA book), which she describes as “part biography, part visual fantasy, and part feminist allegory.” Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein (Roaring Brook Press) hits shelves this month.

The Q&A is here. Next week, I’ll follow up here at 7-Imp with some art from the book.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Lita Judge taken by Ben Conant.





3 comments to “Lita and Mary”

  1. Eh, I’ll pass on Mary as incredible role model; Percy Shelly was a CREEPER and that poor girl probably rued the day she ever took up with him and his 99 OTHER mistresses… plus wife. Ugh. I mean, Mary did survive, though, but… I’m afraid I have the English major’s contempt for the poet and merely pity for those swept up in his train!


  2. This is wrestled with in the book, including an author’s note that addresses it. (And she mentions it in the Q&A.)

    Creeper, indeed.


  3. That is, she asks: Why would Mary stay with him?


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