Claire Clairmont and the Shelleys 1798-1879

Claire Clairmont and the Shelleys 1798-1879

This acclaimed biography of Claire Clairmont, stepsister of Mary Shelley and mother of Byron's daughter Allegra, draws on her vivid letters and journals to portray a women of talent and resilience making her way in nineteenth-century Europe. "Destined to become a reference point by which to compass the lives of the Shelley Circle. Best of all, Gittings and Manton render an invaluable service to the literary history of nineteenth-century England: They rescue Claire Clairmont from the margins of history and bring her center-page."-- The Hudson Review "As a life, it is extraordinary and moving."-- The Independent "The result is not simply to recreate an endearing personality, but to illuminate the talents she moved among."-- The Observer "This book fills in a neglected part of the Romantic story, and shows that there was more to Claire Clairmont than literary history's best-known groupie and gooseberry to the Shelleys."-- Sunday Times (London) "This thoughtful and balanced biography will intrigue the general reader and generate new perspectives for those with interests in the Romantics or Women's Studies."-- Yearbook of English Studies 1994 The late Robert Gittings won prizes for John Keats: The Living Year (W.H. Smith Literary Award 1969); Young Thomas Hardy (Christian Gauss Award 1975); The Older Hardy (RSL Heinemann Award, 1979, James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1979); and with Jo Manton for Dorothy Wordsworth (Southern Arts Literature Prize, 1987). Jo Manton is author of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, and with Robert Gittings The Second Mrs Hardy (1981) and Dorothy Wordsworth (OUP, 1987; pb Oxford Lives, 1988).