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Proserpine And Midas
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin) (1797-1851) was an English romantic gothic novelist. She received an excellent education, which was unusual for girls at the time. She never went to school, but she was taught to read and write by Louisa Jones, and then educated in a broad range of subjects by her father, who gave her free access to his extensive library. In particular, she was encouraged to write stories, and one of these early works Mounseer Nongtongpaw was published by the Godwin Company's Juvenile Library when she was only eleven. One night, perhaps attributable to Galvani's report, Mary had a waking dream; she recounted the episode in this "What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow. " This nightmare served as the basis for the novel that she entitled Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). Amongst her other works The Last Man (1826), Proserpine and Midas (1922) and Notes to the Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1922
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About the author
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
2,329Ìýbooks7,847ÌýfollowersMary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, often known as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, travel writer, and editor of the works of her husband, Romantic poet and philosopher . She was the daughter of the political philosopher and the writer, philosopher, and feminist .
Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer in her own lifetime, though reviewers often missed the political edge to her novels. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. It was not until 1989, when Emily Sunstein published her prizewinning biography Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, that a full-length scholarly biography analyzing all of Shelley's letters, journals, and works within their historical context was published.
The well-meaning attempts of Mary Shelley's son and daughter-in-law to "Victorianise" her memory through the censoring of letters and biographical material contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in the later years of her life added to this impression.
The eclipse of Mary Shelley's reputation as a novelist and biographer meant that, until the last thirty years, most of her works remained out of print, obstructing a larger view of her achievement. She was seen as a one-novel author, if that. In recent decades, however, the republication of almost all her writings has stimulated a new recognition of its value. Her voracious reading habits and intensive study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated. Shelley's recognition of herself as an author has also been recognized; after Percy's death, she wrote about her authorial ambitions: "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea". Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.
Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer in her own lifetime, though reviewers often missed the political edge to her novels. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. It was not until 1989, when Emily Sunstein published her prizewinning biography Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, that a full-length scholarly biography analyzing all of Shelley's letters, journals, and works within their historical context was published.
The well-meaning attempts of Mary Shelley's son and daughter-in-law to "Victorianise" her memory through the censoring of letters and biographical material contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in the later years of her life added to this impression.
The eclipse of Mary Shelley's reputation as a novelist and biographer meant that, until the last thirty years, most of her works remained out of print, obstructing a larger view of her achievement. She was seen as a one-novel author, if that. In recent decades, however, the republication of almost all her writings has stimulated a new recognition of its value. Her voracious reading habits and intensive study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated. Shelley's recognition of herself as an author has also been recognized; after Percy's death, she wrote about her authorial ambitions: "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea". Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 27, 2023
Proserpine and Midas are two stories from Greek myth.
When these two stage plays by Mary Shelley appeared in a search result I was intrigued.
Both plays were never performed and were published much later. They were also written in collaboration with her husband, Percy B Shelley, who wrote the verses but Mary Shelley wrote the drama.
Proserpine explores the heartbreak between mother and daughter when they are separated; Pluto has kidnapped her and taken her back to Tartarus (referred to as Hades in other versions).
Midas combines two of his stories, where Apollo turns his ears to ass’s ears for preferring Pan’s music over his, and where he chooses his reward from Bacchus to turn everything he touches to gold.
In places the Proserpine play was moving and heartfelt, with mother and daughter kept apart for half of the year, but it didn’t flow as well as Midas.
Midas worked better for exploring several themes rather than one, and Zopyrion, Midas’s Prime Minister, provided comedy, making this one a more entertaining read.
When these two stage plays by Mary Shelley appeared in a search result I was intrigued.
Both plays were never performed and were published much later. They were also written in collaboration with her husband, Percy B Shelley, who wrote the verses but Mary Shelley wrote the drama.
Proserpine explores the heartbreak between mother and daughter when they are separated; Pluto has kidnapped her and taken her back to Tartarus (referred to as Hades in other versions).
Midas combines two of his stories, where Apollo turns his ears to ass’s ears for preferring Pan’s music over his, and where he chooses his reward from Bacchus to turn everything he touches to gold.
In places the Proserpine play was moving and heartfelt, with mother and daughter kept apart for half of the year, but it didn’t flow as well as Midas.
Midas worked better for exploring several themes rather than one, and Zopyrion, Midas’s Prime Minister, provided comedy, making this one a more entertaining read.
December 21, 2013
This was not the adaptation of the Persephone/Hades story I was expecting. When people described it as a "feminist re-telling", I assumed that it would be like the revisionist school of thought regarding the myth: namely, that Persephone either chooses to go with Hades of her own volition or that she accepts her abduction and eventually becomes a badass Queen of the Underworld that doesn't take shit from anyone and has a 3-headed hellhound for a pet.
This instead focused on the relationship between Demeter and Persephone, which I always thought was a bit nuts. I am of the belief that Demeter was a bit of a nut job and kept Persephone waaaaay too close, sheltering her from the entire world and thus making Persephone somewhat of a subversively rebellious child. Instead, this re-telling is all about love and the support structures women can offer other women, which have mostly gone to crap in the age of the Internet (prove me wrong, Internet). I suppose I can see how this WOULD have been a feminist re-telling when it was published, but I don't think that's necessarily true now. Persephone doesn't even come into her own, it's mostly just her lamenting. I take comfort in the fact that this was published for children and therefore didn't take the time to focus on the darker themes in the myth like Persephone's relationship with Hades (who never shows up once in the play).
If you're looking for a revisionist version of the tale, check out the poem Persephone Lied () or someone please recommend a good adaptation where Persephone isn't the perpetual victim. All I've found are YA books, which I feel like will boil down the story to nothing more than a girl with a crush on a bad boy. And eh, no thanks.
This instead focused on the relationship between Demeter and Persephone, which I always thought was a bit nuts. I am of the belief that Demeter was a bit of a nut job and kept Persephone waaaaay too close, sheltering her from the entire world and thus making Persephone somewhat of a subversively rebellious child. Instead, this re-telling is all about love and the support structures women can offer other women, which have mostly gone to crap in the age of the Internet (prove me wrong, Internet). I suppose I can see how this WOULD have been a feminist re-telling when it was published, but I don't think that's necessarily true now. Persephone doesn't even come into her own, it's mostly just her lamenting. I take comfort in the fact that this was published for children and therefore didn't take the time to focus on the darker themes in the myth like Persephone's relationship with Hades (who never shows up once in the play).
If you're looking for a revisionist version of the tale, check out the poem Persephone Lied () or someone please recommend a good adaptation where Persephone isn't the perpetual victim. All I've found are YA books, which I feel like will boil down the story to nothing more than a girl with a crush on a bad boy. And eh, no thanks.
August 4, 2022
Midas apparently not published until 1922. (Both plays collaborations between Mary and Percy Shelley, who contributed the poems.)
March 6, 2013
Minor works, probably written more as a technical exercise than with the intention of producing great art. They are well done, though, with vivid imagery and some subtlety of characterisation, particularly in Proserpine, where a mother's overwhelming terror for the safety of her child is powerfully depicted.
January 15, 2025
Easy to digest poetry with familiar stories.
The way both Mary and Percy Shelley worked on this together makes for an enjoyable, not too monotonous read.
I don't usually read a lot of poetry though, so I'm afraid this is as deep as the reviews gets.
The way both Mary and Percy Shelley worked on this together makes for an enjoyable, not too monotonous read.
I don't usually read a lot of poetry though, so I'm afraid this is as deep as the reviews gets.
July 24, 2017
Unlike the introducer, I didn't think this book was a very interesting treatment of the subjects, certainly not nearly so much as Shelley's novels, for which he has some serious disdain. The plays feel like weak Shakespearean-homage interpretations of the stories. The plays incorporate songs with lyrics by Percy Shelley, of which Apollo's song is easily the best. Proserpine's song is one of the worst Percy Shelley poems I've ever read--it sounds very forced, almost deliberately bad, while Pan's song has a deliberately-bad feel to it that Proserpine's song lacks. I read Proserpine in a volume of the complete works of Mary Shelley I had out from the Indiana University Library when I did my graduate school interview eleven years ago. I had to return that volume before I could read Midas. Time hasn't really increased my appreciation of Proserpine, and Midas is only mildly charming. I enjoyed it more than the unfinished _The Pipes o' Pan_, by L. Frank Baum and George Scarborough, but those two were trying to appeal to a vaudeville audience as it was. Shelley's version is more high-minded, and does a decent job connecting the ass ear and golden touch stories, but the blank verse still reads more like mock-Shakespeare than Mary Shelley, a style I should be able to recognize having now read all seven novels. Apart from the frequent quotations of Percy, it's hard to see any of that greatness here. Unlike the introducer, I liked Midas slightly better because more of the action occurs on stage, while Proserpine mostly includes a lot of summary of things happening off-stage. (Pluto never appears on stage, for example, but is represented by Aesculapius.) Prosperpine passes the Bechdel test and Midas doesn't, but even Bechdel admits that her test is not an overall assessment of quality.
March 19, 2015
Proserpine is of course Persephone; who spends half her year with Hades and half with her mother, thus plunging the world into winter. I have never understood this fable. The one thing parents are supposed to do is raise independent children. Damn it all, Ceres/Demeter, she got married! Let her go. You are just embarrassing yourself.
Midas is the story of the king with the golden touch, who eventually when he has lost it decides that gold is the basest thing and that flowers, earth and sky are the true valuables.
***
Honestly is there a more tragic story than Mary Shelley’s own? Most of the introduction to this volume is concerned with whether she actually wrote it or not. And Mr Koszul, who wrote the introduction, says he only published it for Shelley’s short poetic contributions to her dramas. Nice� but I can understand why she might be interested in a story where a mother gets back her child for half the year after thinking her lost forever. She even calls her ‘my sweet summer child�.
I am honestly amazed that she apparently considered this work as appropriate for children and only sent it to children’s publishers.
Midas is the story of the king with the golden touch, who eventually when he has lost it decides that gold is the basest thing and that flowers, earth and sky are the true valuables.
***
Honestly is there a more tragic story than Mary Shelley’s own? Most of the introduction to this volume is concerned with whether she actually wrote it or not. And Mr Koszul, who wrote the introduction, says he only published it for Shelley’s short poetic contributions to her dramas. Nice� but I can understand why she might be interested in a story where a mother gets back her child for half the year after thinking her lost forever. She even calls her ‘my sweet summer child�.
I am honestly amazed that she apparently considered this work as appropriate for children and only sent it to children’s publishers.
December 8, 2013
This is a short collection of 2 dramas written by Mary Shelley along classical lines. The first (which I enjoyed the most) relates the history of Proserpine and how after disregarding the advice of her mother, and separating from her attendants, she is kidnapped by the King of Hell. It is only a very short play (with the inclusion of some of PB Shelley's poetry) but it is very charming and enjoyable to read. I particularly liked the emphasis on the relationship between Ceres (mother) and Proserpine. Their relationship could definitely be described as adoring and given that Shelley had lost her own daughter just a very short while before the writing of this drama, I think that this portrayal of the relationship could be read as autobiographically significant to the author. The second drama is "Midas" and is entertaining enough, but I didn't enjoy it as much as Proserpine. Free on Kindle, there's not much not to like about this short collection.
May 7, 2010
Read on kindle (can't tell if this is the exact same edition), and it was passable. Midas was more entertaining than Proserpine.
November 24, 2011
Beautiful poetry. Both are wonderful myths and her writing brings them to life.
March 11, 2016
Much preferred Proserpine to Midas, but still an interesting look into Shelley's dip into the dramatic.
June 7, 2017
Midas is far far better of the two books and really enjoyable to read. Prserpine, not particularly interesting and not one of Mary Shelley's best works.
November 22, 2018
This was Mary’s attempt at writing a play, but it just screamed Percy all over it.
May 16, 2020
It was ok. About what I expected. I enjoyed the historical aspect in the notes about the unpublished play and her life than I did the actual play. I mean, It's pretty bland mythology stuff. The Midas story is different from what I remember. Sometimes the writing was interesting. A retelling of already known tales usually isn't. I didn't know the Proserpine one ... however, it really was a bland story.
But, it does make me feel better having read this short book. Much classier than the garbage pulp I've been reading lately.
But, it does make me feel better having read this short book. Much classier than the garbage pulp I've been reading lately.
January 18, 2018
Minor fragments, sure, but their music is true and unforced.
Perhaps because of their abrupt, elliptical nature, both of these short dramas lend their mythic subjects a sense of internalised panic that overpowers any moral or seasonal readings - first the world is bearable, then it isn't, then it might be again.
Hey, I can relate!
Perhaps because of their abrupt, elliptical nature, both of these short dramas lend their mythic subjects a sense of internalised panic that overpowers any moral or seasonal readings - first the world is bearable, then it isn't, then it might be again.
Hey, I can relate!
January 13, 2018
Prosperine And Midas, written by Mary Shelley and Percy, was overall okay. I still have yet to read "Frankenstein" from her yet, so hopefully it'll be pretty good....
Other than that, this story was okay....
Other than that, this story was okay....
February 2, 2021
Is there something that Mary Shelley cannot do?
They are not, of course, the finest work of art she has produced but there is grace in her words, vivid imagery and entertainment, which is all we need sometimes.
It's also very beautiful to see Percy's poems in this two dramas.
They are not, of course, the finest work of art she has produced but there is grace in her words, vivid imagery and entertainment, which is all we need sometimes.
It's also very beautiful to see Percy's poems in this two dramas.
May 16, 2018
Beautiful language. Delightful stories.
December 26, 2020
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
May 27, 2021
[read for ENGL 19500] i liked that no men were really in this piece. good. the classics should be rewritten without male presence.
July 28, 2022
Entertaining listening 🎶🔰
Another will written documentary short story by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. This was not what I expected but you may enjoy give it a try. 2022
Another will written documentary short story by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. This was not what I expected but you may enjoy give it a try. 2022
June 10, 2024
anything by Shelley is worth a read!
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