This edition, the third in our Lives of the Great Romantics series, sheds light on contemporary perceptions of the most biographically and intellectually compelling literary family of the Romantic period. The collected writings reveal not only the personalities of the subjects, but also the motives and agendas of the individual biographers. In volume 1, the memoirs depict the character of the philosopher and novelist William Godwin as inseparable from the character of his work. In volume 2, a fascinating picture of the vicissitudes of Wollstonecraft’s reputation throughout the nineteenth century is displayed. Shortly after her death she is vilified and abused by commentators, but gradually a new ‘sanitised’ image emerges, her “coarseness’ is overlooked, and the emphasis shifts to her gentleness and sensitivity, combined with strength of mind. Both volumes 1 and 2 include extracts from Mary Shelley’s previously unpublished ‘Life of William Godwin’ in the Abinger Collection, transcribed specially for this edition. Due to Sir Timothy’s prohibition that Mary Shelley bring the Shelley name to public attention, and because the growing conservatism of the era often caused Mary Shelley to be shunned by ‘good society’, little was written of her during her life time. Many of the later passages in this collection, however, reveal truths about Mary Shelley’s character and work much known but never previously written about.