Mary Shelley Resurrected as Polyamory Icon
Literary historians are reframing Frankenstein author Mary Shelley as an early voice for polyamory, citing her open relationship with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Source: Vanity Fair · Published 16 Oct 2025
Summary: Nineteenth-century author Mary Shelley was an early practitioner of what we’d now call polyamory. Married for seven years to poet Percy Shelley, she advocated for "free love," and biographers have noted her open, non-monogamous relationships with other men and women.
Why This Matters: Long remembered for her groundbreaking novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's reputation is also undergoing a similar transformation. Some are even reading complex gender dynamics in her seminal work: Victor Frankenstein ("that's Frankensteen") creates life by bypassing traditional reproduction with a woman.
This story reflects a broader re-evaluation of Romantic-era figures through modern relationship lenses, a theme echoed in recent academic writing on "free love" and literary modernism.
