Mab's Daughters: Shelley's Wives and Lovers: Their Own Story

by Judith Chernaik

Once there were four women, three of them sisters, who fell under the spell of a revolutionary poet. Their shared vision of communal love left a trail of destruction, including two suicides and abandoned children. This book is based on the lost papers of the Shelley circle.

Genres: Historical Fiction

Paperback

First published July 10, 1992

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the chief reasons I liked this book was the continuous addition of more insanity. Judith Chernaik is described as a Shelley scholar but if she is then it isn't a choice made because she admires the man. I always thought P.B. Shelley's poetry was centred somewhere far away from any real world but I had no idea how far away he did exist.
The group of friends Shelley had included Leigh Hunt, G. Gordon Lord Byron, and this group of four women of whom two were at different times married to Shelley, one appears to have had relations with him and the fourth, the outsider, was Shelley's first wife. The other three were partial sisters and raised together. It becomes a little confusing keeping the people separated, something they were unable to do themselves. It's all very well to advocate free love and even to act on it, but it can cause great pain if one of the partners isn't in accord with the principles. Harriet always thought Shelley would come back to her and when she finally decided he wouldn't, gave up on everything and killed herself. She was pregnant at the time so she killed her unborn child as well.
There is a great deal of emotional instability through this book but if the reader reminds oneself that these are mostly teenagers the emotions begin to make some sense.
The other stream running through the narrative, which is in the form of diary entries and letters, is money. Byron is a level above the others and more than well to do; the author sets him at a distance from the friends because although he admires Shelley's poetry he lives in a way that the others cannot dream of emulating. Still, Shelley and his wives could have lived comfortably if only someone in the house had taken charge of the money and properly allocated it. They all seem to have some weird idea that everything will work out and if it doesn't they can move somewhere else. In the end "old Sir Timothy" will die and there will be all the money in the world. The only problem with that idea is that in the meantime Shelley is living on post obit loans so when he does come into his inheritance it will all be eaten up by the loans and the interest on the loans. Mary is pregnant with her second child and Shelley has not paid for the carriage that was ordered for Harriet. He doesn't have the carriage, either. It is all terribly sad. Mary's father seems to be living off Shelley and losing whatever money he earns while Shelley is giving alms and blankets to the poor. I have no argument with Shelley's (and the others') views of the political situation in England at the time but giving people blankets is not going to alleviate their poverty. The situation had to change and reform was the answer but it took so long!
Shelley was ill all through this time and taking laudanum for the pain of some form of kidney problem. His emotional health became very uncertain as a result of this. Mary doesn't seem (according to the author) to have thought this was a good practice but she didn't have an alternative to offer so she kept quiet.
All of the women are pregnant for a large part of the novel and the menage seems to have been filled with young children, including Allegra, Clare's daughter by Byron. Clare seems to feel that she can remain in the Shelley household for as long as she wants and he will probably allow it since he has established relations with her while Mary is pregnant.
It's all very messy and seems to prove what I've always felt, that the simpler you keep your life the easier life becomes. These people seem to just let themselves ramp all over the scene, taking what they want and giving very little. Shelley never settles and has run away with two young women, Mary being only sixteen. I think I'd have been unsure of the rightness of Shelley being left to raise his children, too, although not for the reason the Lord Chancellor was giving. The government was saying that Shelley was an atheist and therefor immoral, while I would not have cared about his atheism but would have been concerned at his carelessness about relationships and he proper management of money. He was a lovely man no doubt, but would have run his household and that of anyone relying on him totally into the ground.