Secrets

Victor has embarked on a noble act,

a heroic act even: to conquer disease

and overcome the ravages of age—

to achieve victory over Death! But

it’s so unnatural, so contrary to the

day’s established practices, that he must

carry out his experiments in secret,

collect his specimens in darkness.

You, too, must pursue your noble 

calling out of public view. A woman

novelist—how unnatural, how contrary

to your times. Like Austen, Edgeworth,

Radcliffe, Burney, you must publish

your book in the darkness of anonymity.

from “Mary W. Shelley: A Biography in Sonnets”