考研英语真题中曾出现过人物传记（biography），如2017年的新题型，内容是英国作家狄更斯的传记。本文介绍另一位英国作家玛丽雪莱，英文写做Mary Shelley，这个名字曾在2019年的Text3中出现过。她是科幻小说《Frankenstein》的作者，也是英国著名诗人雪莱的妻子。
Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She was the daughter of philosopher and political writer William Godwin and famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Sadly for Shelley, she never really knew her mother who died shortly after her birth. Her father William Godwin was left to care for Shelley and her older half-sister Fanny Imlay. Imlay was Wollstonecraft's daughter from an affair she had with a soldier.
玛丽雪莱于1797年8月30日出生在英国伦敦，原名玛丽·沃斯顿克拉夫特·戈德温。她是哲学家和政治作家威廉·戈德温和著名女权主义者玛丽·沃斯通克拉夫特的女儿。对玛丽雪莱来说，不幸的是，她从未真正见过她的母亲，因为母亲在她出生后不久就去世了。剩下她的父亲威廉·戈德温来照顾雪莱和她同母异父的姐姐范妮·伊姆雷。Imlay是沃斯通克拉夫特与一名士兵有染后生下来的女儿。
The family dynamics soon changed with Godwin's marriage to Mary Jane Clairmont in 1801. Clairmont brought her own two children into the union, and she and Godwin later had a son together. Shelley never got along with her stepmother. Her stepmother decided that her stepsister Jane should be sent away to school, but she saw no need to educate Shelley.
1801年戈德温与玛丽·简·克莱尔蒙特结婚后，家庭关系很快发生了变化。克莱尔蒙特把她自己的两个孩子带进了这个家庭，后来她和戈德温又生了一个儿子。玛丽和她的继母关系不好。继母决定把继妹简送去上学，但继母认为没有必要为玛丽雪莱提供教育。
The Godwin household had a number of distinguished guests during Shelley's childhood, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. While she didn't have a formal education, she did make great use of her father's extensive library. Shelley could often be found reading, sometimes by her mother's grave. She also liked to daydream, escaping from her often challenging home life into her imagination.
在玛丽雪莱童年时期，戈德温一家有许多贵宾，包括塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治和威廉·华兹华斯。虽然她没有受过正规教育，但她确实很好地利用了她父亲藏书丰富的书房。人们经常发现玛丽雪莱在读书，有时是在她母亲的墓旁。她也喜欢做白日梦，从她经常充满挑战的家庭生活中解脱出来，然后沉浸在自己的想象中。
Shelley also found a creative outlet in writing. She once explained that "As a child, my favourite pastime, during the hours given me for recreation, was to 'write stories.'" She published her first poem, "Mounseer Nongtongpaw," in 1807, through her father's company.
玛丽雪莱还在写作中找到了一种创造性的发泄方式。她曾经解释说:“小时候，在我的娱乐时间里，我最喜欢的消遣就是‘写故事’。1807年，她通过父亲的公司发表了自己的第一首诗。
In 1814, Mary began a relationship with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Percy Shelley was a devoted student of her father, but he soon focused his attentions on Mary. He was still married to his first wife when he and the teenaged Mary fled England together that same year. The couple was accompanied by Mary's stepsister Jane.
1814年，玛丽开始与诗人珀西·比希·雪莱交往。珀西·雪莱是她父亲忠实的学生，但他很快就把注意力集中在玛丽身上。当他和十几岁的玛丽同年一起逃离英格兰时，他和第一任妻子仍是夫妻。玛丽的继妹简陪同着这对夫妇。
Mary and Percy traveled about Europe for a time. They struggled financially and faced the loss of their first child in 1815. Mary delivered a baby girl who only lived for a few days. The following summer, the Shelleys were in Switzerland with Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron and John Polidori. The group entertained themselves one rainy day by reading a book of ghost stories. Lord Byron suggested that they all should try their hand at writing their own horror story. It was at this time that Mary Shelley began work on what would become her most famous novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.
玛丽和雪莱在欧洲旅行了一段时间。他们在经济上陷入困境，并在1815年失去了第一个孩子。玛丽生了一个女婴，只活了几天。第二年夏天，雪莱夫妇与简、拜伦和约翰·波利多利一起来到了瑞士。这群人在一个下雨天读一本鬼故事书消遣。拜伦建议他们自己写恐怖故事。正是在这个时候，玛丽·雪莱开始着手创作她最著名的小说《弗兰肯斯坦》，或称《现代普罗米修斯》。
Later that year, Mary suffered the loss of her half-sister Fanny who committed suicide. Another suicide, this time by Percy's wife, occurred a short time later. Mary and Percy Shelley were finally able to wed in December 1816. She published a travelogue of their escape to Europe, History of a Six Weeks' Tour (1817), while continuing to work on her soon-to-famous monster tale. In 1818, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus published as a new novel from an anonymous author. Many thought that Percy Bysshe Shelley had written it since he penned its introduction. The book proved to be a huge success. That same year, the Shelleys moved to Italy.
那年晚些时候，玛丽失去了同母异父的姐姐范妮，她自杀了。不久之后，雪莱的妻子也自杀了。玛丽和珀西·雪莱终于在1816年12月结婚了。她出版了一本关于他们到欧洲旅行的游记《六周旅行的历史》(1817年)，同时继续写她马上就要出名的怪物故事。1818年，一位匿名作者出版了新小说《弗兰肯斯坦》，又称《现代普罗米修斯》。许多人认为是珀西·比希·雪莱写了这本书，因为是他写了这本书的序言。这本书获得了巨大的成功。同年，雪莱夫妇移居意大利。
While Mary seemed devoted to her husband, she did not have the easiest marriage. Their union was riddled with affair and heartache, including the death of two more of their children. Born in 1819, their son, Percy Florence, was the only child to live to adulthood. Mary's life was rocked by another tragedy in 1822 when her husband drowned. He had been out sailing with a friend in the Gulf of Spezia.
虽然玛丽似乎很爱她的丈夫，但她的婚姻并不容易。他们的结合充满了婚外情和心痛，包括两个孩子的死亡。他们的儿子珀西·弗洛伦斯生于1819年，是唯一活到成年的孩子。玛丽的生活被1822年的另一场悲剧动摇了，她的丈夫淹死了，在和一位朋友在斯比齐亚湾航行的时候。