History of a Six Weeks’ Tour is a travel narrative by the English Romantic authors Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Published anonymously in 1817, it describes two trips taken by Mary, Percy, and Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont: one across Europe in 1814, and one to Lake Geneva in 1816. The text’s frank discussion of politics, including positive references to the French Revolution and praise of Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was unusual for a travel narratives authored primarily by a woman.
About History of a Six Weeks’ Tour in brief
History of a Six Weeks’ Tour is a travel narrative by the English Romantic authors Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Published anonymously in 1817, it describes two trips taken by Mary, Percy, and Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont: one across Europe in 1814, and one to Lake Geneva in 1816. Divided into three sections, the text consists of a journal, four letters, and Percy Shelley’s poem “Mont Blanc”. Apart from the poem, preface, and two letters, it was primarily written and organised by Mary Shelley. The text’s frank discussion of politics, including positive references to the French Revolution and praise of Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was unusual for a travel narratives authored primarily by a woman. Although it sold poorly, History of the Six weeks’ Tour received favourable reviews. In proposing another travel narrative to her publisher in 1843, Mary Shelley claimed “my 6 weeks tour brought me many compliments”. Mary Shelley’s first work, Frankenstein, was published anonymously in January 1818. She also began work on History of a six weeks’ tour, which was published in November 1817. It was not actually published until 12 and 13 November, but the work was written by Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin at the same time. Mary and Percy married on 30 December 1816 and moved to Marlow, Buckinghamshire. In the summer of 1817 Mary Shelley started to assemble the couple’s joint diary from their 1816 journey into a single text. At what point she decided to include the letters from the 1816 trip into a travel book is unclear.
By the middle of October she was making fair copies for the press and transcribing for publication while Percy was working on The Revolt of Islam. The book was not published until November 6, 1818, and it was not released until November 1, 1819. It is unclear at what point the journal and the letters were made into asingle text, but by 28 September 1816, the letters and the journal were being edited for publication. Mary Shelley wrote of the year without a summer: “t proved a wet, ungenial summer and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house’”. The group spent their time writing, boating on Lake Geneva, and talking late into the night. They spent the summer months with the Romantic poet Lord Byron, but, as Mary Shelley later wrote, ‘it proved a rain-soaked summer’. The group also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories, prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale. In May 1816 the group travelled to Geneva with Mary’s stepsister and their second child. The trio travelled for six weeks through France, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands; however, they were forced to return to England due to financial considerations. Mary had become pregnant with a child who would soon die, she and Percy now found themselves penniless, and, to Mary’s genuine surprise, her father refused to have anything to do with her.
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