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was Claire’s well-documented intrusion into Mary’s relationship with Percy Shelley – it is widely believed now, and was then, that Claire and Percy Bysshe in their shared belief in free love had had an affair and may even have had a child together. Further to this, at the time of this correspondence Mary was living in uncomfortable rented rooms in South Audley Street, dependent almost entirely on her disapproving father-in-law, Sir Timothy Shelley’s. Claire meanwhile was splitting her time between London and Paris, where she worked as a governess. In both places Percy Bysshe’s reputation was on the rise, his atheism forgotten, his radicalism beginning to look far-sighted, and his poetry widely read and discussed. Mary perhaps found it preferable to believe that Clairmont asked for the signature not as a sentimental keepsake but to impress some contact there with her literary credentials. In the event, Claire did not give the signature away; famously in her later years she became the guardian of a significant amount of valuable Shelley memorabilia and the target of insincere suitors on account of it. It is this situation that inspired Henry James’s novella, The Aspern Papers (1888). Provenance: Mary Shelley specialist Professor Jean de Palacio of the University of Lille. Single leaf (235 × 185 mm), thrice folded. Some glue residue to blank portion from having been tipped into an album, a few other very faint marks, very good condition. £22,500 [120615]
only with abundant delight but a sense of descriptive energy quite unlike anything I had experienced before”. The other result of publishing The Daffodil Murderer was that it brought Sassoon to the attention of Edward Marsh – the editor of Georgian Poetry – and Marsh soon became Sassoon’s mentor. Octavo. Original yellow wrappers lettered in dark red. Housed in a custom red cloth case. Bookplate of Henry Lewis Batterman Jr. to case. Closed tears and creases to wrappers, some internal creases; else a near-fine copy. ¶ Keynes A10. Max Egremont, Siegfried Sassoon , 2005. £3,750 [153720] 107 SHELLEY, Mary & Percy Bysshe. Autograph letter signed to Claire Clairmont, with a clipped signature of Percy Bysshe Shelley. [24 South Audley Street:] 2 May 1837 A precious relic of the great romantic love triangle An autograph letter from Mary Shelley to her step-sister Claire Clairmont in response to a request for Percy Bysshe’s signature. Indicative of the lingering tension between Shelley and Clairmont, Mary encloses a clipped signature of her late husband’s (“Yours ever faithfully – Percy B. Shelley”) yet writes tersely: “I hope the person to whom you give it will appreciate it as it deserves – or I should not like to part with it”. The relationship between the women had been, and continued to be, awkward, for several reasons. Chief among them
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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