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
Context: 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.
Hot take: 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 (Frankensteen) creates life by bypassing traditional reproduction with a woman.
