Redefining research...
As a 19 year old student at Cambridge Juliet first read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), closely followed by The Last Man (1826)
Suddenly having the vast world of university libraries to hand with the internet still in its early days, Young read and researched Mary Shelley: her novel on 19 year old student Victor Frankenstein, her dystopian novel The Last Man with characters based on the tragic poets Percy Shelley and Lord George Byron who had recently died young. The Brontes clearly read this and knew about Mary Young thought, afterall Mary outlived Emily and Anne so was a contemporary writer to them....
Dissertations and Dismissal....
When Young asked to do her literature dissertation on the Bronte sisters and Mary Shelley she was told they hadnthadn't read Shelley. Her dissertation subject wasn't allowed.
With her grandparents living less than an hour away from Haworth, Juliet was familiar with the Bronte's world and their novels. Continuing to research and read on their links to the Shelley's, Young began her thesis in her 20s, using archives and little known texts to prove that the Shelley's were integral to understanding the Brontes...
In 2024 Young's work of 20 years was published in research book The Shelleyan Brontes.
Showing how the Shelleys were available to the Brontes in works they read at the Parsonage like Blackwood's Magazine (which even included long extracts from Frankenstein) & Moore's Life of Byron (which was actually written by Mary Shelley!) showing how the Shelleys wrote alongside Byron at Lake Geneva. The textual Shelleys can be seen throughout the Bronte sisters' writing...
Email: shelleyanbrontes@icloud.com
www.shelleyanbrontes.com
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