The Lady and Her Monsters

by Roseanne Montillo

  Luigi Galvani’s experiments and notes on his demonstrations can be found in his De viribus electricitatus in motu musculari commentarius.

  Bassiano Carminati’s interchange with Galvani and the various letters between the two are also reprinted in Galvani’s De viribus.

  Details on the life of Alessandro Volta, his experiments, and his exchanges with Luigi Galvani can be found in various places: Marco Bresadola’s Animal Electricity at the End of the Eighteenth Century: The Many Facets of a Great Scientific Controversy; Giovanna Ferrari’s “Public Anatomy Lessons and the Carnival: The Anatomy Theatre of Bologna”; Luigi Galvani’s De viribus electricitatus in motu musculari commentarius; the University of Bologna’s International Workshop Proceedings; Raffaele Bernabeo’s Luigi Galvani (1798–1998) fra biologia e medicina: Atti della Accademia delle Scienze dell’Istituto di Bologna, classe di scienze fisiche, anno 286; Orlando Pasquale’s Memorie storiche della terra di medicina; Alessandro Volta’s Elettricità scritti scelti; and Marcello Pera’s The Ambiguous Frog.

  Giovanni Aldini’s experiments on oxen, his procurement of cadavers, and his meddling with the lunatic Luigi Lanzarini can be found in greater detail in John Aldini’s An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism; with a Series of Curious and Interesting Experiments Performed Before the Commissioners of the French National Institute and Repeated Lately in the Anatomical Theatres of London; to Which Is Added, an Appendix, Containing the Author’s Experiments on the Body of a Malefactor Executed at New Gate.

  CHAPTER 3

  Some descriptions of the city of London upon Giovanni Aldini’s arrival can be found in Roy Porter’s English Society in the Eighteenth Century.

  Further information on James Graham’s experiments is found in Peter Otto’s “The Regeneration of the Body: Sex, Religion and the Sublime in James Graham’s Temple of Health and Hymen.”

  Horace Walpole’s reaction to Graham’s Temple of Health is printed in Walpole’s “To Lady Ossory,” reprinted in The Yale Editions of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence.

  The tales of the resurrectionists can be found in even more detailed descriptions in Christian Baronet’s The Autobiography of Sir Christian, Baronet; James Moores Ball’s The Body Snatchers: Doctors, Grave Robbers and the Law; James Blake Bailey’s The Diary of a Resurrectionist, 1811–1812, to Which Are Added an Account of the Resurrection Men in London and a Short History of the Passage of the Anatomy Act; and Ruth Richardson’s Death, Dissection, and the Destitute.

  The doctor’s poem quoted at his deathbed can also be found in James Blake Bailey’s The Diary of a Resurrectionist.

  More extensive information on George Foster’s alleged crime and subsequent trial and confession can be found in G. T. Crook and John L. Ragner’s The Complete Newgate Calendar.

  Charles Dickens’s visit to the prison can be read in full in “A Visit to Newgate,” originally printed in Sketches by Boz.

  Further and more complete information on the Murder Act can be found in James Moores Ball’s The Body Snatchers: Doctors, Grave Robbers and the Law, as well as James Blake Bailey’s The Diary of a Resurrectionist.

  George Foster’s death by hanging and his subsequent retrieval from the gallows by Mr. Pass are detailed in G. T. Crook and John L. Ragner’s The Complete Newgate Calendar, while Giovanni Aldini’s extensive experiments on the body of George Foster can be found in full in John Aldini’s An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism; with a Series of Curious and Interesting Experiments Performed Before the Commissioners of the French National Institute and Repeated Lately in the Anatomical Theatres of London; to Which Is Added, an Appendix, Containing the Author’s Experiments on the Body of a Malefactor Executed at New Gate.

  The death of Mr. Pass was reported in Crook and Ragner’s The Complete Newgate Calendar, as well as John Aldini’s An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism.

  CHAPTER 4

  The information on Paracelsus can be found in his own book De rerum natura (Concerning the Nature of Things), as translated by A. E. Waite.

  Portions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can be found in James Rieger’s reprinted edition of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, as well as the edition of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus with introduction and notes by Maurice Hinoce.

  Paracelsus’s recipe for the homunculus and accounts of many of his other experiments can be read in full in his De rerum natura (Concerning the Nature of Things).

  The quote and recipe for making the golem in the Polish Jewish tradition comes from Jacob Grimm’s A Journal for Hermits.

  Details on Percy Shelley’s life at Oxford can be found in even further detail in Thomas Jefferson Hogg’s Shelley at Oxford as well as Edward Dowden’s The Life of Percy Shelley, in two volumes.

  Tiberius Cavallo’s experiments and his interchanges with Dr. James Lind are printed in Cavallo’s A Complete Treatise in Electricity, in Theory and Practice, with Original Experiments, Containing the Practice of Medical Electricity, Besides Other Additions and Alterations.

  Percy Shelley’s letter to Thomas Jefferson Hogg was reprinted in Edward Dowden’s The Life of Percy Shelley, as well as T. J. Hogg’s The Life of Percy Shelley.

  A description of Percy Shelley’s dabbling with laudanum and subsequent nightmares can be found in Edward Dowden’s The Life of Percy Shelley as well as Thomas Medwin’s The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

  Descriptions of Dundee’s history, including the history of whaling, are to be found in the Dundee Advertiser, as well as from the Dundee Whaling History Project.

  Physical descriptions of Mary Shelley are quoted from Edward Dowden’s The Life of Percy Shelley, while Percy Shelley’s marriage to Harriet Westbrook, their escape to Scotland, and his subsequent meeting with Mary Shelley can be found in various places, including Thomas Jefferson Hogg’s Shelley at Oxford; Edward Dowden’s The Life of Percy Shelley; Thomas Medwin’s The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley; and to some extent, Betty T. Bennett’s The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

  Percy Shelley’s letter to T. J. Hogg detailing Eliza Westbrook’s involvement in his life and that of his wife can be found reprinted in Edward Dowden’s The Life of Percy Shelley.

  Descriptions of Harriet Shelley after Percy Shelley’s abandonment can be read in full in Mark Twain’s In Defense of Harriet Shelley and Other Essays.

  CHAPTER 5

  William Godwin’s letter to John Taylor is reprinted in Paula Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert’s The Journals of Mary Shelley.

  Claire Clairmont’s quote on leaving Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley alone in the grounds of the cemetery can be found in R. Glynn Grylls’s Claire Clairmont, Mother of Byron’s Allegra and Marion Kingston’s The Journals of Claire Clairmont and The Clairmont Correspondence: Letters of Claire Clairmont, Charles Clairmont, and Fanny Imlay Godwin.

  Details on Claire Clairmont, and Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley’s elopement to the mainland, including their trip to France and subsequent return to England, can be read in full in Mary Shelley’s A Six Weeks’ Tour Through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, with Letters Descriptive of a Sail Round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni.

  Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin’s three-hour walk in the German town of Nieder-Beerbach and their likely hearing of Burg Frankenstein and its inhabitants was also detailed in Radu Florescu’s In Search of Frankenstein and lightly touched upon by Anne K. Mellor in Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters.

  Johann Konrad Dippel’s life and experiments appeared also in E. E. Aynsley and W. A. Campbell’s “Johann Konrad Dippel,” while the experiments he might have read of in order to concoct his recipe for Dippel’s Oil can be read in full in Raymond Lully’s Experimenta and Robert Boyle’s The Sceptical Chymist.

  CHAPTER 6

  Details of Mount Tambora’s explosion, its effect on the villagers, and the subsequent help that was extended to them can be found in Thomas Standford Raffles’s Memoir on the Life and Public Serv
ices of Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles, F.R.S. & C., Particularly in the Government of Java 1811–1816, and of Bancoolen, and Its Dependencies 1817–1824, with Details of the Commerce and Resources of the Eastern Archipelago, and Selections from His Correspondence.

  Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin’s new reality in London, including Claire Clairmont’s stay in their house, can be found in Edward Dowden’s The Life of Percy Shelley.

  Mary Shelley’s journal entry upon the death of her child can be found in Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert’s The Journals of Mary Shelley. Reprints of the Times advertisement for the brothers Garnerin can also be found in The Journals of Mary Shelley.

  Mary Shelley’s letters to T. J. Hogg are reprinted in Betty T. Bennett’s The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, where Mary’s relationship with Hogg is also analyzed by Ms. Bennett.

  Claire Clairmont’s comments to Edward Augustus Silsbee on the nature of Mary’s relationship with T. J. Hogg can be found in the Silsbee Papers.

  Thomas Moore’s recollections of Lord Byron are quoted in Teresa Guiccioli’s My Recollections of Lord Byron, while Lord Byron’s quotes and descriptions come from Countess Blessington’s A Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron, with a Sketch of the Life of the Author.

  Lady Byron’s recollections and letters about her husband come from a letter she wrote and that was reprinted in The Passages from Lady Anne Barnard’s Private Family Memoirs.

  Lord Byron’s comments on his marriage and the birth of his daughter come from Countess Blessington’s A Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron, with a Sketch of the Life of the Author.

  Claire Clairmont’s letters to Lord Byron are reprinted in Marion Kingston’s The Clairmont Correspondence: Letters of Claire Clairmont, Charles Clairmont, and Fanny Imlay Godwin.

  John William Polidori’s description of his travels with Lord Byron, his letters to his sister, and the subsequent meeting with Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin, and Claire Clairmont can be found in a more extensive form in D. L. MacDonald’s Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography and William Michael Rossetti’s The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori.

  Fanny Imlay’s letters to Mary Godwin can be found in their entirety in Marion Kingston’s The Clairmont Correspondence: Letters of Claire Clairmont, Charles Clairmont, and Fanny Imlay Godwin.

  Mary Godwin’s letters to her sister Fanny are reprinted in Mary Shelley’s History of a Six Weeks’ Tour Through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, with Letters Descriptive of a Sail Around the Lake of Geneva, and the Glaciers of Chamouni.

  Percy Shelley’s letter to Teresa Guiccioli is reprinted in Teresa Guiccioli’s My Recollections of Lord Byron.

  Mary Shelley’s comments on the thunderstorms visiting the lake can be found in her letters to Fanny Imlay, reprinted in Mary Shelley’s History of a Six Weeks’ Tour.

  Mary Shelley’s recollections of the evening conversations at Villa Diodati were introduced in her 1831 edition of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

  John William Polidori’s details on his studies and subsequent knowledge of waking dreams and body snatching comes from David Petrain’s “An English Translation of John William Polidori’s (1815) Medical Dissertation on Oneirodynia (Somnambulism).”

  John William Polidori’s quotes come from William Michael Rossetti’s The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori, while Mary Shelley’s comments on Polidori’s idea of a “skull-headed lady” come from her introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein.

  The description of the evening entertainment at Villa Diodati, including the reading of phantasmagoria and Byron’s idea to write their own ghost stories, comes from Mary Shelley’s 1831 introduction to Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

  In William Michael Rossetti’s The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori, the entry of June 18 tells of the reading of “Christabel.”

  The story of the arrival of Victor Frankenstein and his fiend was first introduced by Mary Shelley in 1831 in her introduction to Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

  CHAPTER 7

  Details of the days following the ghost story competition can be found in William Michael Rossetti’s The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori.

  Lord Byron’s letter to Douglas Kinnaird detailing his initial involvement with Claire Clairmont was originally printed in Leslie Marchard’s Byron: A Biography, later reprinted in Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert’s The Journals of Mary Shelley.

  John William Polidori’s letters to his father, Gaetano Polidori, and details of his trip to Italy and the bad luck he found there can be found in William Michael Rossetti’s The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori, and to some extent, D. L. MacDonald’s Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography.

  John Hobhouse’s quote about his involvement in helping Polidori leave the premises is found in D. L. MacDonald’s Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography.

  Accounts of John William Polidori’s return to England, his failed attempts at a law career, his enjoyment of bordellos and gambling, and his accident and “brain damage” can be found in several places, such as D. L. MacDonald’s Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography; William Michael Rossetti’s The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori; the Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette of September 1817; and the New Monthly Magazine.

  Further details of John William Polidori’s tale “The Vampyre” and the subsequent fuss that ensued over its authorship can be found in D. L. MacDonald’s Poor Polidori: A Critical Biography; William Michael Rossetti’s The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori; a letter from John William Polidori to the New Monthly Magazine; and Lord Byron’s response to the controversy in the New Galignany Magazine.

  John William Polidori’s death was covered in The Traveller, August 1817; Polidori’s quote about being overshadowed by Lord Byron can be found in William Michael Rossetti’s The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori, in the entry dated May 28. In Rossetti’s book there is also Lord Byron’s reaction to the death of Polidori.

  Claire Clairmont’s letters to Lord Byron, detailing her pregnancy, hopes, and new habitation, are reprinted in Marion Kingston’s The Clairmont Correspondence: Letters of Claire Clairmont, Charles Clairmont, and Fanny Imlay Godwin.

  Fanny Imlay Godwin’s trip to Bristol and her subsequent suicide by laudanum are covered in Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert’s The Journals of Mary Shelley; Marion Kingston’s The Clairmont Correspondence: Letters of Claire Clairmont, Charles Clairmont, and Fanny Imlay Godwin; and The Cambrian.

  People’s views of Fanny Godwin are detailed, in part, in Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert’s The Journals of Mary Shelley; Marion Kingston’s The Clairmont Correspondence: Letters of Claire Clairmont, Charles Clairmont, and Fanny Imlay Godwin; Edward Dowden’s The Life of Percy Shelley; Frederick Jones’s Maria Gisborne and Edward E. Williams, Shelley’s Friends: The Journals and Letters; and E. V. Lucas’s The Letters of Charles Lamb to Which Are Added Those of His Sister, Mary Lamb.

  Details of Mary Godwin’s marriage to Percy Shelley come from Claire Clairmont, who spoke to Captain Edward Augustus Silsbee, details of which can be found in the Silsbee Papers.

  Mary Shelley’s letter to Lord Byron is reprinted in Betty T. Bennett’s Selected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, while Mary Shelley’s entry upon finishing Frankenstein can be found in Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott Kilvert’s The Journals of Mary Shelley.

  Reviews of Frankenstein appeared in The Quarterly Review of March 1818.

  Percy Shelley’s “Alastor” was originally published in 1816, then reprinted by Raymond D. Havens in PMLA.

  Claire Clairmont’s letter to Lord Byron hailing the publication of Frankenstein can be found in Marion Kingston’s The Clairmont Correspondence: Letters of Claire Clairmont, Charles Clairmont, and Fanny Imlay Godwin.

  CHAPTER 8

  The murder of Alexander Love and attempted murder of his grandson by Matthew Clydesdale, Clydesdale’s arrest, his subsequent trial, and his attempted suicide, as well as his
dissection, are covered in Peter Mackenzie’s “The Case of Matthew Clydesdale” and F. L. M. Pattison’s The Clydesdale Experiments, an Early Attempt at Resuscitation and Granville Sharp Pattison: Anatomist and Antagonist.

  Andrew Ure’s life and public spat with his wife is also detailed in F. L. M. Pattison’s Granville Sharp Pattison: Anatomist and Antagonist.

  Details of Matthew Clydesdale’s supposed resurrection are to be found in part in Peter Mackenzie’s “The Case of Matthew Clydesdale” and Andrew Ure’s “An Account of Some Experiments Made on the Body of a Criminal Immediately After Execution, with Physiological and Practical Observations.”

  Reports on William Burke and William Hare’s vicious crimes, as well as Robert Knox and his involvement with Burke and Hare, appeared in many publications of the time. Further information can be found in Blackwood Magazine issues from 1829; Thomas Ireland Junior’s The West Port Murders: An Authentic Account of the Atrocious Murders Committed by Burke and His Associates, Containing a Full Account of All the Extraordinary Circumstances Connected with Them; James Moores Ball’s The Body Snatchers: Doctors, Grave Robbers and the Law; G. T. Cook and John L. Rayber’s The Complete Newgate Calendar; and various editions of The Scotsman.

  Some information on the Anatomy Act can be found in James Moores Ball’s The Body Snatchers: Doctors, Grave Robbers and the Law; James Blake Bailey’s The Diary of a Resurrectionist. 1811–1812, to Which Was Added an Account of the Resurrection Men in London and a Short History of the Anatomy Act; and Ruth Richardson’s Death, Dissection and the Destitute.

  CHAPTER 9

  The description of the city of Naples and Robinson’s quotes about the city can be found in Henry Crabb Robinson’s Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondences of Henry Robinson Crabb.

  The story of the Neapolitan baby can also be found in several publications in greater detail, such as Betty T. Bennett’s The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; Anne K. Mellor’s Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters; and Paula K. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert’s The Journals of Mary Shelley.