Return to Paradise: Lake Como in the Works of Mary Shelley

Abstract

This article deals with Mary Shelley’s imaginary and actual revisiting of Lake Como in her writings following her return to England from Italy in 1823. First the Shelleys’ weekend escape to Como in April 1818 is retraced through their contemporary accounts in their journals and letters. I then look at the ways in which recollections of this visit are incorporated into Mary Shelley’s fictional and non-fictional works, and I compare them to the narratives of her subsequent two visits to Lake Como.