Mary Shelley

Elle Fanning stars as the aspiring teenage writer who embarked on a torrid relationship with poet Percy Shelley, and went on to write Frankenstein. It’s 1814, and Mary Wollstonecraft-Godwin is a 16-year-old girl, working in her father’s London bookshop. During a holiday in Scotland, she encounters the poet Percy Shelley, who makes quite an impression. When they unexpectedly meet again, Mary embarks on a bohemian and torrid relationship with him – much to her father’s horror, who objects to his daughter taking up with the already married Shelley. As her life takes a dramatic turn, Mary begins to write Frankenstein. Director Haifaa al-Mansoor came to prominence in 2012, with her debut feature Wadjda and is here telling a very different story about being a woman in a man’s world. Big performances, big costumes and big hair all contribute too to this immensely enjoyable period drama. “Intelligent, probing, well-acted biopic with a strong feminist slant.” Independent “Jane Austen with sex and drugs and poetry. What’s not to like?” Daily Mail

Mary Shelley

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