Compare and contrast between Mary Shelley and Jane Austen

During the Romantic Age, the novel was one of the most important literary genres together with poetry.

The most important novelists were Mary Shelley (1797-1851) and Jane Austen (1775-1817).

 Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley’s novels belong to Gothic novel genre, which is characterized by a sinister, gloomy atmosphere and supernatural events, mystery and suspense are heightened by the darkness of the scene and by frightening sounds.

 Jane Austen

Jane Austen’s novels belong to Quixotic novel genre in which the main character, a young woman, has a vision of what surrounds her that doesn’t fully correspond to reality and she is usually redeemed from the male hero (he is usually her future husband).

Mary Shelley’s interest in reading tended much more to the classical and philosophical works than the one popular; in fact, in her masterpiece Frankenstein she is influenced by the concept of sublime theorised by Edmund Burke: it causes in the soul of man a sense of dread and majesty during the contemplation of a natural landscape.

Shelley spent her formative life in a city environment surrounded by radical philosophers and her works were intellectual, philosophical and “dark”.

Instead of it, Jane Austen was highly home-educated by her father, the rector of Steventon, and spent a country life.

She treated in her novels the provincial world of southern England, the landed gentry and talked about the themes of obtaining a good marriage and keeping a “good name” in a comedic tone, with irony to the point that Austen is considered un-Romantic writer.

 Frankenstein novel (inside cover)

Unlike Jane Austen, Mary Shelley is considered a Romantic writer because in Frankenstein she treats some important Romantic themes like the ancient dream of creating artificial life and the effects of science on man.

Despite the stylistic, intellectual, literary and thematic differences between the two novelists, there are some common elements related mainly to women’s lives:

•  Mary Shelley wrote her famous work when she was eighteen and revised it next years. Jane Austen wrote her first drafts of her most important novels when she was twenty and revised them over years;
• Austen began her first novels in epistolary form and Shelley wrote Frankenstein in the same literary form;
• Austen and Shelley lived in Bath for several years.

Despite the two novelists did not meet, it is highly probably that they could be aware of each other.

“Sense and Sensibility” written by Jane Austen was published for the first time in 1811 by Thomas Egerton.

This novel had favourable reviews and became popular among the young aristocracy.

 Pride and Prejudice novel (title page)

“Pride and Prejudice”, followed in January 1813, was widely advertised and sold well.

In that period, Mary Shelley was surrounded by publishers and writers.

She was beginning her early attempts at writing. Surely, Mary Shelley must have been aware of a successful writer like Jane Austen.

The kind of societal focus on marriage, the most important theme of Austen’s novels, was the philosophical opposite of William Godwin’s (Mary Shelley’s father) ideas, in spite he judged an Austen’s novel that he had read as a good work.

Then, “Mansfield Park” came out in May 1814, in the same period when Mary and Percy B. Shelley fell in love and her step-sister Jane (Claire) was taking interest in the fashions of the time.

Austen’s novels became popular to the point that the Prince Regent was counted as a fan of her novels.

In 1815, Jane Austen decided to change publisher and worked for John Murray, an important publisher of London, in order to anticipate the publication of her new novel “Emma”.

John Murray, moreover, was considered the publisher of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Godwin.

In these years, Percy Shelley and Mary Shelley were good friends with Lord Byron and they lived together in Switzerland. In this place, during a summer night, Mary Shelley began to write “Frankenstein”.

Then, when Percy and Mary returned to London, Percy took on the task of supervising the publishing of Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage- III Canto” with John Murray.

Austen had completed a draft of “Persuasion” (The Elliots) in July 1816 with the intention of publishing it with John Murray, but, because of economic difficulties of her brother Henry, she had some problems with bank in March 1816.

Austen’s health was failing in 1816.

She completed two revisions of some drafts of “Persuasion” in August 1816 and she started to write “Sanditon” but, because of her death, it was incompleted.

When Jane Austen died on July 1817 in Winchester, Percy Shelley began to show the draft of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to some publishers in May 1817.

John Murray and Charles Ollier declined to publish it.

It was finally accepted by George Lackington who printed and published it (with anonymous author) in March 1818.

Despite of all, it is possible that in this period Mary Shelley must have known of Jane Austen’s works and she probably had been encouraged or inspired by the success of a woman like Jane Austen, who had a style of writing familiar with Mary Wollstonecraft’s one (Mary Shelley’s mother), the author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”.