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1816: The dark summer that birthed a monster . . .
1816: The dark summer that birthed a monster . . .
Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire. Tormented by Shelley’s betrayals, haunted by the loss of their baby and suspicious of her sister’s intentions, Mary seeks sanctuary.
But Lord Byron’s villa, lying under ominous, ash-shrouded skies, feels more like a trap. When Byron suggests each guest write a supernatural tale, Mary is as drawn to the challenge as she is, unexpectedly, to Byron himself.
And so an idea begins to form in her mind . . .
It spills out of her in thick, black ink.
A thing given life is before her.
Day and night, she is possessed.
Heart and mind. Body and soul.
But is she in control, or is it?
Byron, London and Geneva
George Gordon Byron was a British poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement and is known for being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom.
In the summer of 1816 he settled at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva. There Byron befriended the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and author Mary Godwin, Shelley’s future wife. He was also joined by Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he’d had an affair in London – they had had an illegitimate child Allegra who sadly died at the age of 5 under the care of Byron himself.
Destination/location: Geneva, London Author/guide: Caroline Lea Departure Time: 1816
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