Percy Bysshe Shelley

Author Code: EPBS

Shelley was educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford. In 1811, he published a pamphlet defending aetheism and consequently was expelled from Oxford. Thereafter he moved to the Lake District and became good friends with Southey and Godwin. His first popular published work was Queen Mab (1813). Shelley's first marriage failed and he eloped with Mary Godwin (daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin) in 1814. Together, they toured France, England, Switzerland and Italy where they settled. Prometheus Unbound was published in 1818 and followed by The Cenci and much lyric poetry in the following four years. Shelley died in a boating accident in 1822 off the coast of Leghorn, Italy. Mary published his works in 1822 as Posthumous Poems.