"Mary Shelley" - Chautauqua History Comes Alive Festival

Come hear from Mary Shelley, as portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak. Shelley’s groundbreaking novel Frankenstein, poses the question: What if someone discovered the secret to creating life? It then explores the ramification of such a discovery: Are we capable of managing our technological creations?

Furthermore, what responsibility (if any) do we hold in caring for abandoned or wronged members of society? Shelley raises these questions from a context of living much of her life as an outsider – learning early on that her mother challenged societal norms and that she died as a result of Shelley’s birth, at odds with a stepmother who brought two children of her own into the marriage with her father, rejected by her father upon her elopement with Percy Bysshe Shelley, shunned for life by her husband’s family, and betrayed by a close friend.

In fact, the big reveal in learning about Shelley is to discover how much the story of the fantastical, wretched, hideous creature brought to life in a Swiss laboratory draws on or parallels her experience in England as an intelligent daughter of two notable middle-class authors and the consort/wife of an aristocrat poet.

Free admission. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Come early to get a seat. Doors open at 1 p.m.