History of a Six Weeks' Tour

Synopsis

'I never knew—I never imagined what mountains were before.' History of a Six Weeks' Tour (1817) is a volume of travel-writing by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley, two of the best-known authors of the English Romantic period. Comprising prose narrative, correspondence, and poetry, it is a highly engaging account of their 'adventures and feelings' during two journeys from England to Switzerland. The first part of History describes the titular 'tour' made by the not-yet-married Mary and Percy in July–September 1814, when mainland Europe was once again accessible to British travellers at the end of the Napoleonic wars. The long descriptive letters which make up the second part of History recall the so-called 'Frankenstein summer' of 1816, some of which the Shelleys spent with Byron on the shores of Lake Geneva. This part of History also provides significant biographical and historical context for Mary's novels Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826), key sections of which are set in the Alps, and for two of Percy's most canonical poems, 'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty' and 'Mont Blanc', the second of which was published for the first time in History. This edition includes an introduction, detailed notes, and appendices, placing the book in its historical and cultural context and showcasing the Shelleys' collaborative writing process.