Valperga: Or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio.
SECOND NOVEL
SIGNED (?)
(Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft) Valperga: or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca. By the Author of “Frankenstein.” In three volumes. London: Printed for G. and W.B. Whittaker, 1823.
Three volumes; 8vo.; scattered foxing throughout; the front endpaper of each volume has a ghost of an impression left by a bookplate affixed to the facing page; all edges stained brown; three-quarter marbled boards; leather spine and tips; decoratively stamped in gilt and blind. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First and only edition of Shelley’s second novel; with bookplate of Robert Frederick Boyle on the pastedown of each volume, and one page of publisher’s advertisements at the rear of the third volume. Signed on the title page of the first volume by [ ].
Valperga is Shelley’s foray into historical fiction, which is intermingled with a study of sexual politics, and Shelley’s philosophy that individual and social progress are realized by self-awareness and intelligence. The novel is set in fourteenth century Italy, and focuses on the conflicts between Republican Guelph party and the Ghibeline party, which was loyal to the Holy Roman Empire. According to a biographer, Betty Bennett, it was written for Shelley’s father’s benefit (Bennett, Betty T. “Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1797–1851).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004). Indeed, the choice to write historical fiction must have been inspired by Godwin’s educational encouragement of his daughter. Frederick Jones, editor of The Letters of Mary Shelley, lauds that Valperga surpasses Frankenstein: “It is, indeed, her best novel, having a richness of imaginative style and a creative force in combination with a thoroughness of scholarship that are exhibited in none of her other works.”
In her Preface, Shelley explains that in order to research the character of Castruccio, the Italian prince of Lucca, she read Macchiavelli, Sismondi’s Histoire des Republiques Italiennes de l’Age Moyen, Tegrino’s Life of Castruccio and Giovanni Villani’s Florentine Annals. Castruccio was an ideal figure from whom to base her narrative on, since he fought for the Ghibelines and was exiled by the Guelphs, thus providing a human element to a country’s political upheaval.
Shelley began writing Valperga in 1817, one year after Frankenstein was published; the Shelley’s were now living in Tuscany so Mary could do research for her new book. A series of unfortunate events in her personal life delayed her completion and publication of the novel until 1823. In September, 1817, Shelley gave birth to her third child, a daughter, who died shortly after her first birthday. Then, in 1819, their second child, a son, died of malaria (the Shelley’s first daughter had been born in 1816 and only lived for twelve days). Their fourth and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley, was born in November, 1819. Three years later, tragedy struck again when Percy Bysshe Shelley died.
The publication of Valperga marked a turning point in Shelley’s career, as she was determined to provide for her surviving son.
(#10900)
OCLC: 7
Bennett, Betty T. “Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1797–1851).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004
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