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Shelley and His World
"Shelley and His World" was universally acclaimed on publication as an ideal introduction to the poet's life and work. This much-requested reissue is guaranteed to delight Claire Tomalin's loyal readership. 'A vivid, amusing yet heartbreaking picture of Shelley poetry, politics, travel, friendships, love-affairs, scandals, mysteries, children, visions - all gracefully combined' - "London Review of Books".
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Claire Tomalin
33 books422 followersBorn Claire Delavenay in London, she was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge.
She became literary editor of the 'New Statesman' and also the 'Sunday Times'. She has written several noted biographies and her work has been recognised with the award of the 1990 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the 1991 Hawthornden Prize for 'The Invisible Woman The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens'.
In addition, her biography of Samuel Pepys won the Whitbread Book Award in 2002, the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 2003, the Latham Prize of the Samuel Pepys Club in 2003, and was also shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2003.
She married her first husband, Nicholas Tomalin, who was a prominent journalist but who was killed in the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War in 1973. Her second husband is the novelist and playwright Michael Frayn.
She is Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature and of the English PEN (International PEN).
She became literary editor of the 'New Statesman' and also the 'Sunday Times'. She has written several noted biographies and her work has been recognised with the award of the 1990 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the 1991 Hawthornden Prize for 'The Invisible Woman The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens'.
In addition, her biography of Samuel Pepys won the Whitbread Book Award in 2002, the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 2003, the Latham Prize of the Samuel Pepys Club in 2003, and was also shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2003.
She married her first husband, Nicholas Tomalin, who was a prominent journalist but who was killed in the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War in 1973. Her second husband is the novelist and playwright Michael Frayn.
She is Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature and of the English PEN (International PEN).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 20, 2017
3.5
I knew very little about Shelley ...I had an idea of his dates, that he'd died young, was married to Mary Wollstonecraft and bore the forenames Percy Bysshe (the latter, in itself, made him a 'must read'. I hadn't realised that his friends and family called him by his second name.
Claire Tomalin's book is fairly concise (unlike this review, probably)and is an excellent introduction to Shelley and his times and his 'circle'. There was much to interest me about PBS. A man well ahead of his time, certainly as far as the Establishment and 'nice' society were concerned. He was 150 years ahead of the 'swinging 60s'. Was 'Free Love' inspired by Shelley? (I seem to recall Jagger quoting Shelley in Hyde Park on the death of fellow R. Stone, Brian Jones).
His family were comfortably off, sent him to Eton, then on to Oxford, from where he was expelled. His publicly professed atheism did not go down well there and his Republicanism probably didn't help. (His moniker for George IV, “Swellfoot the Tyrant” is priceless and quite apt, considering he locked his Queen out of his Coronation and had her tried for adultery; rich from a bigamist). A socialist before there was such a thing? I would have liked more information on how he got by financially once his allowance was all but stopped by his morally outraged father. (His poetry doesn't appear to have been a money spinner). He was very much in the shadow of Byron and Keats.
His brazen private life shocked 'decent' society and PBS and his women and children lived abroad for many years, latterly in Italy. Shelley welcomed 'open' relationships but did not entirely practice what he preached.
I knew very little about Shelley ...I had an idea of his dates, that he'd died young, was married to Mary Wollstonecraft and bore the forenames Percy Bysshe (the latter, in itself, made him a 'must read'. I hadn't realised that his friends and family called him by his second name.
Claire Tomalin's book is fairly concise (unlike this review, probably)and is an excellent introduction to Shelley and his times and his 'circle'. There was much to interest me about PBS. A man well ahead of his time, certainly as far as the Establishment and 'nice' society were concerned. He was 150 years ahead of the 'swinging 60s'. Was 'Free Love' inspired by Shelley? (I seem to recall Jagger quoting Shelley in Hyde Park on the death of fellow R. Stone, Brian Jones).
His family were comfortably off, sent him to Eton, then on to Oxford, from where he was expelled. His publicly professed atheism did not go down well there and his Republicanism probably didn't help. (His moniker for George IV, “Swellfoot the Tyrant” is priceless and quite apt, considering he locked his Queen out of his Coronation and had her tried for adultery; rich from a bigamist). A socialist before there was such a thing? I would have liked more information on how he got by financially once his allowance was all but stopped by his morally outraged father. (His poetry doesn't appear to have been a money spinner). He was very much in the shadow of Byron and Keats.
His brazen private life shocked 'decent' society and PBS and his women and children lived abroad for many years, latterly in Italy. Shelley welcomed 'open' relationships but did not entirely practice what he preached.
April 25, 2011
Shelley makes me feel queasy. Part of me admires him for having the courage of his convictions (if you look at his relationships with women through the lens of 'sexual politics', for example, his behaviour is consistent with his views, if not always kind). And part of me agrees with poet William Southey, who described Shelley's life as an 'Atheist's Tragedy' of self-indulgence.
Tomalin's approach in this short book - at just over 100 pages, it is almost more a very extended essay - is even-handed and clear-eyed. An obvious admirer of Shelley's (better) poetry, she links us into the social and biographical context of his writing. She explains his political writing and agitation, and his (understandable) lack of success finding publisher who would issue this writing. And she covers her careening romantic life, from his marriage to his first wife Harriet when she was 16 and he 19, to his abandonment of Harriet two or so years in favour of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, not much older than Harriet, his intense - possibly sexual - relationship with Mary's sister Jane (who bore Byron's illegitimate daughter) and his brief adorations of sundry other young women during his short life.
At heart, Shelley's feels like the story of a spoiled boy who is a little too smart and a little too romantic for his own good, and who - knowingly or unknowingly - tramples on other people's lives as he blunders about trying to do what seems to be the right thing.
Tomalin's approach in this short book - at just over 100 pages, it is almost more a very extended essay - is even-handed and clear-eyed. An obvious admirer of Shelley's (better) poetry, she links us into the social and biographical context of his writing. She explains his political writing and agitation, and his (understandable) lack of success finding publisher who would issue this writing. And she covers her careening romantic life, from his marriage to his first wife Harriet when she was 16 and he 19, to his abandonment of Harriet two or so years in favour of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, not much older than Harriet, his intense - possibly sexual - relationship with Mary's sister Jane (who bore Byron's illegitimate daughter) and his brief adorations of sundry other young women during his short life.
At heart, Shelley's feels like the story of a spoiled boy who is a little too smart and a little too romantic for his own good, and who - knowingly or unknowingly - tramples on other people's lives as he blunders about trying to do what seems to be the right thing.
June 3, 2016
This was another good biography written by Claire Tomalin. For me this bio was more of an introduction into Shelley's life and gives one a taste of the Romantic movement.
I hope that whoever reads this short bio goes onto reading other biographies about Shelley and other figures in the Romantic movement. I have read about many people from this literary movement and I plan to read more.
I hope that whoever reads this short bio goes onto reading other biographies about Shelley and other figures in the Romantic movement. I have read about many people from this literary movement and I plan to read more.
November 18, 2021
Twenty-nine years is a very short life, so it is perhaps understandable that this book only runs to about 121 pages, with many of them taken up with interesting illustrations that go beyond the limited selection of portraits and pictures of houses that accompany most biographies. But Shelley packed an awful lot into those few years—so that although its brevity was one of the reasons I chose to read this book (English Romantic poetry being one of my literary blind spots), I finished Shelley and His World wishing that it had been longer. Tomalin clearly admires Shelley as a poet (although she is objective about the strengths and weaknesses of his poems) and sympathizes with many of his qualities as a person, without being blind to the pain and problems that they led to. I'd like to read a full-length version of this book, were she to write one, but the conciseness of this biography meant that, although still very useful as an introduction, it was not always as clear and coherent as it could have been.
May 16, 2020
I had already started 2 books but for some reason this little book caught my attention and i whizzed through it. It’s a short overview of Shelley’s life, influences and work. There’s a lot of detail and quotes and of course lots of famous names. Very enjoyable.
June 14, 2021
Excellent, short, lively biography of Shelley and those in his world. Enirches our understanding of his work and of this tragic figure doomed by his nature to much unhappiness and difficulty.
December 28, 2025
If you are interested in Shelley and his complicated personal life and challenging poetry you will enjoy Tomalin’s brief biography. Filled with pictures, paintings and all the relevant facts.
September 8, 2011
An amazing read about a truly charismatic individual. Beautifully written. I always enjoy Claire Tomalin, she writes it as if she were there. Wonderful.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews