Shelley's Ghost

Shelley and Mary eloped at 4.15 am on 28 July 1814, accompanied by Mary’s step-sister Jane Clairmont (who later that year began to call herself Clary or Clara, then settled on Claire). They were pursued by Mrs Godwin (Claire’s mother), who caught up with them the following day at Calais, but failed to persuade them to return. On 2 August Shelley, Mary and Claire reached Paris, where they purchased this notebook. Shelley wrote up their dramatic flight from England, the stormy crossing (during which he began ‘to reason upon death') and their arrival in France. Mary makes her first contribution to the journal by lightly completing a sentence: ‘Mary was there. Shelley was also with me.

As they continued their journey through France, Switzerland and Germany Mary began to add entries of her own. She and Shelley then took turns at writing up the day's events until their return to England on 13 September. The journal was then mostly maintained by Mary. The entries from 28 July to 13 September were later published (in a revised form) in History of a Six Weeks' Tour, 1817.