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Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley

3 3.7
An English writer who wrote Frankenstein when she was young
  • proper noun
: Mary Shelley
  • Mary Shelley is renowned for writing 'Frankenstein' in 1818.

Examples

  • The famous author Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein'.

  • Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley traveled extensively through Europe.

  • Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she was just eighteen years old.

  • Scholars often discuss the influence of Mary Shelley on Gothic literature.

  • Did you know that Mary Shelley was only 18 when she published her first novel?

  • The impact of Mary Shelley on the Romantic literary movement is widely acknowledged.

  • As the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley played a significant role in the literary community of her time.

Synonyms

1 5.9

An English writer best known for the novel Frankenstein and wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley

is the shorter, common form used in ordinary references

Surface Forms

Morphology

Mary + Shelley

This is a referential proper name: the specific identity and biographical information of 'Mary Shelley' cannot be derived from the constituent name parts 'Mary' and 'Shelley'. Proper names are arbitrary labels requiring cultural or encyclopedic knowledge rather than compositional word-meaning inference, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not understand this MWE's referent or significance.

Etymology

Mary Shelley was an English writer who, one famous story says, got the idea for 'Frankenstein' in a dream during a stormy night after a ghost-story game with friends. That's why her name now stands for the author of the famous book about a scientist who makes life.