Lecture 3 of Book Two Percy Bysshe Shelley.ppt

Lecture 3 of Book Two Percy Bysshe Shelley I. Life: born in 1792, at Fieldplace near-Horsham in Sussex;, Shelley was gentle and kind by nature, but he had a stout heart. He could not stand any injustice. At Eton he was known as Mad Shelley”. At this time he was much influenced by the utopian-socialist doctrines of William Godwin. Then he went to Oxford, where he took part in progressive activities and soon came into sharp conflict with the university authorities. In 1811 Shelley published an anti-religious pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism, believing that religion was an instrument of oppression. For this he was promptly expelled from the university and disowned by his father. While living alone in London at the age of 19, he made acquaintance with and married, out of sympathy, a school-girl of 16, Harriet Westbrook. For two years the young couple wandered about England, Ireland and Scotland. Shelleys marriage with Harriet had proved hasty and unsuitable, because she could not share his ideas. The unhappy union was dissolved in 1814. In 1816, Shelley married Mary Godwin, the daughter of William Godwin, the radical philosopher, and Mary Wollstonecraft, the authoress of the famous Vindication of the Rights of Women. Shelleys second marriage was a happy one. He was compelled to leave England in 1818 and spent all the rest of his life in Italy. As early as 1816 began Shelleys friendship with Byron. While in Italy Shelley and Byron formed a closer connection with each other and from then on the names of the two poets have been linked up for ever. the English people have ever cherished his memory and poetry with love. Mary Shelley did a good job in collecting and editing his poems, and her explanatory notes have been helpful to all editors and readers of Shelleys works. II . Major Works Queen Mab, Shelleys first long poem of importance, written in 1813. contains almost all his major social and political ideas. It is written in the form of a fairy-tale dream. Th