Autograph letter signed to John George Cochrane.

SHELLEY, Mary.

Published by 33 Somerset Street, London: 23 December 1829

About this Item

A scarce signed letter from Mary Shelley to John George Cochrane, the Scottish editor and publisher of the Foreign Quarterly Review. Shelley is unforgiving in her response to a request for a review of Stendhal's Promenades dans Rome: "I have not forgotten or neglected my task, but M. Beylses' book is so trite so unentertaining - so very commonplace that I have found it quite impossible to do anything with it". Shelley and Stendhal shared a complete devotion to Italy. For Shelley, her travels through Italy were a pilgrimage to "a land not only beautiful and exotic but sacred to what she considered the greatest civilization human beings had ever created, heir to the Greeks" (Sunstein, p. 152). Stendhal, while similarly enchanted by the country's rich history and culture, used his travels as a springboard to muse on his own philosophies - many of which were antagonistic to Shelley's worldview. On reading Stendhal's Promenades, Shelley must have been pained to see her beloved Italy used as a justification for political and moral standpoints she disavowed. Stendhal was not so icy towards Shelley and her late husband. In her biography of Mary, Sunstein paints a picture of Stendhal as "an ardent Shelleyan" who drew on Mary and her husband for his novel Armance: "Proud, reserved but passionate, noble-minded, her brow too prominent, her principles too elevated, she never lies but is forced into caution to preserve her integrity in an alien society that prizes money, rank, and appearances". While their circles overlapped, it's uncertain that they ever met. Stendhal falsely claimed in one of his works to have met Percy Bysshe Shelley, and it is likely that he avoided close contact with the poet's widow. This letter is one of 21 autograph letters acquired from the Mary Shelley specialist Professor Jean de Palacio of the University of Lille - this small clutch aside, autograph letters from Mary Shelley very seldom come to market. Emily Sunstein, Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, 1989. Single leaf (182 x 111 mm). Remains of wax seal, generally faded and spotted, small patch of tape repair to verso, fair condition.

Seller Inventory # 120610

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Autograph letter signed to John George Cochrane.
• Publisher: 33 Somerset Street, London: 23 December 1829
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)