Title: Haunted Summer

Author: Anne Edwards

Date of First Publication: 1972

Place of Publication: New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

Bibliographic Reference: Original source

Type: Novel

Characters: Mary Shelley; Lord Byron; Percy Shelley; John Polidori; Claire Clairmont

Keywords: BYRONIC HERO; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER

Critical Summary: Haunted Summer catalogues the events of the summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati through the perspective of Mary Shelley. Accompanied by Mary’s pregnant half-sister Claire Clairmont, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Shelley travel to Switzerland after rumors of their union circulate in England and Percy’s financial situation worsens. As Percy is still trapped in a tenuous relationship with his suicidal wife, Harriet, Percy and Mary’s involvement isn’t sanctified in the eyes of the church or the country. Upon arriving in Switzerland, Claire manipulates a meeting with Lord Byron, the brooding poet, and it quickly becomes clear that the child she carries is his. Hoping to win his favor (as he is known as quite the ladies’ man), Claire convinces Byron to let the Villa Diodati, a well-known property near a large lake and a mysterious castle called Chillon. Here, they number five: Mary, Percy, Claire, Byron, and Polidori, Byron’s personal physician. Lord Byron suffers with an unspecified physical deformity of the legs that hinders his ability to walk, and Polidori often supplies Byron and the others with various mind-altering drugs, much to Mary and Claire’s disapproval.

One night, the group ventures out in Byron’s (whom the group calls Albé after his penchant for telling tales of his adventures in Albania) boat. The weather turns suddenly and, due to the wind and rain, the boat overturns. The group, now soaked and without a working boat, seek shelter in Chillon from the caretaker, a Greek woman named Ianthe. Ianthe tells them the dark history of the castle and points out the various features to the group, finally leading them to their chambers. After they leave the following morning, they decide to make several trips back to the castle in the weeks that follow for some storytelling, as they feel the castle holds some sort of mystic power that the group all draws upon. It is decided that they will each write a horror story, and that one of them each night will recite what they have created in the dungeons of Chillon.

Each time they recite their stories, something supernatural happens in the castle. The story climaxes during Mary’s recitation of her newly created Frankenstein, immediately after which the group discovers the body of Ianthe, swinging from the gallows. The story ends with Mary’s final journal entry, detailing Percy’s death and the suicides of Harriet, Fanny (Mary’s older sister), and Polidori.

This story seems primarily focused on highlighting the tortured and disfigured nature of all involved. Each character, either literally or figuratively, mirrors the creature of Mary’s creation in some way. Lord Byron’s physical deformity, Claire and Polidori’s desire to be loved by someone who refuses to love them in return, Shelley’s aspirations toward being England’s greatest poet, and Mary’s struggle to create her story and fend off Lord Byron’s advances all represent some aspect of the relationship between creator and created being. Indeed, even as Mary reads her story aloud, she begins to realize that, although she had initially identified with Victor, the creature better represents her and her companions. Nature seems to make up a large part of both Mary’s experiences during that unusually dreary and stormy summer as well as Mary’s writing. Both Mary and the characters she writes experience the sublime when they have prolonged contact with the elements of the natural world—particularly water. Mary’s ability to blur the lines between creature and creator causes each character (in the group and in her writing) to appear as more neutral and more sympathetic than perhaps they would be perceived in real life.
Administrative Notes: Molly Robinson, CSUF