Comments on: Will the real Mrs. Shelley please stand up?

By: Margo Fesperman

Margo Fesperman — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:03:50 +0000

If not publishing another great novel is the criterium for questioning authorship, then woe to Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee. Fortunately, they were of the 20th century.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:47:55 +0000

Egads. I hope this won’t be with me on my wedding night. If you want to have a debate about the absolutely terrific novel Frankenstein, try this: Who was more monstrous, Victor or the Creature?

By: Keir

Keir — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:13:03 +0000

It’s so refreshing to boot up one’s computer in the morning and find such lively debate. I’m definitely reserving judgment on the Shelley v. Shelley debate until I’ve read no fewer than a dozen books on the subject.

How about some men of one-book fame so we can look for evidence that their wives/mothers/daughters did the actual writing? Although I’m struggling with this. Ralph Ellison? Malcolm Lowry? It’s far easier to come up with writers who should have stopped after one book….

(And no, Dena, I wouldn’t necessarily call Suicide Girls a reputable source–I think it was the humorous incongruity of finding the post there that drew Mr. Kraus and myself to it. And besides, the S.G. post was only citing other sources….)

By: Bill Stauery

Bill Stauery — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:26:26 +0000

Do you know that Shakespeare actually didn’t write his plays or sonnets? It was really a woman!

By: anne

anne — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 06:44:07 +0000

So, gosh, I guess the authority of Gone with the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird will be inline for questioning next. Those pesky women of one book fame…

By: Carrie

Carrie — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 05:25:53 +0000

I have not read Lauritsen’s book, but to suggest that Mary Shelley, daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, both prominent intellectuals of their day; who pored over her deceased mother’s writing; whose home was frequented by the literati of her nation – was “marginally educated” is ridiculous. Although a “marginal” English education of the period meant a study of the classics and produced other remarkably young and capable writers like Matthew Lewis, who wrote the Gothic smash hit,”The Monk” at only seventeen years of age. Furthermore, a study of Mary Shelley’s tragic life reveals Frankenstein as her veiled autobiography. Her introduction to the novel explains precisely Percy’s role in its inception, and given his untimely death, her grief, feelings of guilt, and financial struggle to support herself and her son, it is no wonder she produced no other work to match it. Her “hideous progeny” was born of no one but Mary Shelley.

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:16:04 +0000

I’ve read that Percy Shelley edited and assisted Mary in writing Frankenstein as an explanation why her other books were not as popular or as well-written. This may make her lose status in some people’s eyes, but recent evidence suggesting that Einstein’s wife colloborated on creating the theory of relativity hasn’t seemed to diminish his stature in anyone’s eyes.

By: dena

dena — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:59:23 +0000

is suicide girls now being considered a reputable source?

god, i miss feminism…

By: Steve Stratton

Steve Stratton — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:40:43 +0000

Given that John Lauritsen’s only other claim to fame is as a dissenter/activist/author who claims that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, despite overwhelming medical proof that says otherwise, I have a hard time taking his work seriously. Lauritsen supports the spread of mis-information serious enough to cause physical harm to people reading his material, so it seems highly unlikely that he is capable of thorough research and reading of primary materials clearly enough to draw a conclusion that anyone would take seriously.

By: DStone

DStone — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:40:23 +0000

A suggestion: read “How to Suppress Women’s Writing” by Joanna Russ before deciding on the validity of Mr. Lauritsen’s argument.