Chronology

1797 29 Mar Mary Wollstonecraft marries William Godwin
  30 Aug Mary Wollstonecraft gives birth to Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.
  10 Sep Mary Wollstonecraft dies from puerperal fever.
1801 21 Dec William Godwin remarries
1814 28 Jul Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley run off to France together. William Godwin refuses any communication with his daughter for the next two and a half years.
  30 Nov Charles Shelley born to Percy Bysshe and Harriet Shelley, their second child.
1815 22 Feb Mary gives birth to daughter, Clara.
  6 Mar Clara dies.
1816 24 Jan Mary gives birth to a son, William.
  16-17 Jun Mary begins to write Frankenstein.
  24 Jul First extant written reference to Frankenstein in Mary's journal.
  15 Dec News reaches Percy that Harriet Shelley committed suicide.
  30 Dec Mary and Percy marry. William Godwin reconciles with his daughter.
1817 27 Mar Percy denied custody of his two children by Harriet.
  14 May Mary completes Frankenstein
  2 Sep Mary gives birth to a daughter, Clara Everina.
  6 Nov History of a Six Weeks' Tour Through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland: With Letters Descriptive of a Sail round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni , written by Mary and Percy, is published anonymously.
1818 1 Jan Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus is published in three volumes.
  24 Sep Clara Everina dies in Venice from dysentery.
1819 7 Jun William Shelley dies from malaria.
  Aug - Feb 1820 Mary writes Matilda, but it remains unpublished until 1959.
  12 Nov Mary gives birth to a son, Percy Florence.
1820 Mar Mary begins writing a novel which she calls Castruccio, Prince of Lucca, later changed to Valperga.
  Apr-May Mary writes Proserpine and Midas.
1821 Jul The first translation of Frankenstein is published in France: Frankenstein; ou le Prométhée Moderne, translated by Jules Saladin.
  End of Aug Mary finishes Valperga.
1822 16 Jun Mary has a miscarriage and almost dies from the resulting hemorrhaging.
1821 8 Jul Percy begins a voyage and sometime during drowns in the Gulf of Spezia.
  Sep-Dec Mary transcribes cantos 10-12 of Byron's Don Juan. She also begins to transcribe Percy's poetry in preparation for a posthumous collection.
1823 1 Jan "A Tale of the Passions" appears in the Liberal, II, 289-325.
  19 Feb Valperga: Or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca is published in three volumes.
  23 Apr "Madame D'Houtetot" appears in the Liberal, III, 67-83.
  Jul Mary composes her poem, "The Choice."
  30 Jul "Giovanni Villani" appears in the Liberal, IV, 281-97.
  11 Aug A second edition of Frankenstein is published in two volumes. The title page names "Mary W. Shelley" as the author.
1824 Jan "Recollections of Italy" appears in the London Magazine.
  Feb Mary begins writing The Last Man.
  Mar "On Ghosts" appears in the London Magazine.
  Apr "The Bride of Modern Italy" appears in the London Magazine.
  Jun Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley , a volume of unpublished poems, is published. Mary edits the volume and writes a signed preface.
1825 25 Jun MWS refuses a marriage proposal from American actor, playwright, and manager John Howard Payne.
1826 23 Jan The Last Man, "By the Author of Frankenstein," is published in three volumes.
  11 Jun "Defense of Velluti," a letter that MWS signs "Anglo Italicus," appears in the Examiner.
  17 Jul Mary meets Thomas Moore and agrees to help him compose a biography of Lord Byron. The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life is published in 1830.
  14 Sep Charles Bysshe Shelley dies, making Percy Florence heir apparent to the baronetcy.
  Oct "The English in Italy," MWS's review of Lord Normanby's The English in Italy, Continental Adventures, a Novel, and Anna Browmwell Jameson's Diary of an Ennuyee, appears in the Westminster Review.
  Dec "A Visit to Brighton" appears in the London Magazine.
1828 11 Apr MWS visits Paris. She contracts smallpox soon after her arrival.
  26 May MWS returns to England to recover from her smallpox.
  Nov/Dec Two of Mary's stories are published anonymously in the Keepsake for MDCCCXXIX: "The Sisters of Albano" (80-100) and "Ferdinando Eboli: A Tale" (195-218).
1829 Nov-Dec MWS copies and revises Perkin Warbeck.
  Nov/Dec Three stories by "The Author of Frankenstein" appear in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX: "The Mourner" (71-97), "The Evil Eye" (150-75), and "The False Rhyme" (265-68.
1830 13 May The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance is published in three volumes.
  Nov/Dec Two stories by "The Author of Frankenstein" appear in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXI : "Transformation" (18-39) and "The Swiss Peasant" (121-46). In addition, three poems in this volume have also been attributed to her, although only the first is signed "Mary W. Shelley": "Absence"(22), "Dirge" (85), and "A Night Scene" (147-48).
1831   MWS anonymously edits and arranges publication for Edward Trelawny's memoirs, Adventures of a Younger Son.
  Nov/Dec "The Dream," a story by "The Author of Frankenstein," appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXII (22-38).
  Nov/Dec Proserpine, a Mythological Drama in Two Acts, which Mary had written in 1820, is published in The Winter's Wreath for 1832 (1-20).
1832 8 Sep William Godwin, Jr., MWS's half brother, dies of cholera.
  Nov/Dec MWS publishes a poem in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIII : "Stanzas". The issue also contains two stories by "The Author of Frankenstein": "The Brother and Sister: An Italian Story" (105-41) and "The Invisible Girl" (210-27).
1833   "The Smuggler and His Family," by "Mrs. Shelley" appears in Original Compositions in Prose and Verse(27-53).
  Nov/Dec "The Mortal Immortal," by "The Author of Frankenstein," appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIV.
1834 Nov/Dec "The Trial of Love," by "The Author of Frankenstein," appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXV.
    "The Elder Son," by "Mrs. Shelley," appears in Heath's Book of Beauty.
1835 Feb Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol 1 (of 3) is published as part of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner.
  7 Apr Lodore is published in three volumes and attributed to "The Author of 'Frankenstein.'"
  Oct Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Vol 2 is published.
1836 7 Apr William Godwin dies.
  19 Jul Mary begins work on Godwin's memoirs, which she never completes.
  Nov/Dec "The Parvenue" by "Mrs. Shelley" appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXVII (209-11).
1837 Feb Falkner. A Novel is published in three volumes; the title page attributes the novel to "The Author of 'Frankenstein;' 'The Last Man,' &c."
  Sep/Oct Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain and Portugal, Vol 3 is published.
  Nov/Dec "The Pilgrims" appears in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX.
1838 Jul Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, Vol 1 (of 2) of The Cabinet of Biography, Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner is published.
  Nov/Dec MWS publishes two poems in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIX: "Stanzas" "How like a star you rose upon my life" and "Stanzas" "O come to me in dreams, my love!". The issue also contains a story: "Euphrasia: A Tale of Greece" by "Mrs. Shelley".
1839 Jan-May Mary's four-volume edition of Poetical Words of Percy Bysshe Shelley, with her preface and notes, is published; she dedicates the edition to Percy Florence.
  Mar Mary undergoes a period of severe illness, possibly brought about by the strain of editing PBS's poems. She is frequently ill for the last 10 years of her life.
  Aug Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, Vol 2 is published.
  Nov Mary's one volume edition of Poetical Words of Percy Bysshe Shelley is published.
  Dec Mary's edition of Percy Shelley's Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments is published in two volumes.
1844 24 Apr Sir Timothy Shelley dies; Percy Florence inherits the estate and title.
  Jul Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 is published in two volumes.
1851 1 Feb Mary dies at age 53.
1922   MWS's drama Midas, which she wrote in 1820, is published in Proserpine & Midas: Two unpublished Mythological Dramas by Mary Shelley.
1959   Mary's 1819-1829 novel Mathilda, which she wrote in 1819-1820, is published.