Question:
I was a member of a notable literary group but the names of the others
seem to be better remembered. Despite this, one of my works is surely
more often retold than any of theirs (although the main character has
been changed in the retelling) but few people realise that I was the
author. I also wrote about a famous revolt, a famous victory and an
impressive waterfall. My life was turbulent and my marriages
unsuccessful: I died while living with one of my closest friends, a
man who was famously interrupted while at work. Who am I, what were
the titles of the four of my works mentioned here, and who ironically
dedicated a well-known, rather racy poem to me?
Answer:
It must be Mary Shelley, author of "Frankenstein", as well as "The
Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck" (opens with the victory of Lancaster over
York in the War of the Roses), and "Lodore" (features a waterfall in the
Lake District). Her pal Coleridge was famously interrupted while
writing "Kubla Khan", and husband Percy dedicated a number of poems to
her, perhaps the raciest of which was "The Witch of Atlas". Not sure
which famous revolt she wrote about ("Valperga" may feature a
14th-century Italian revolt), though her mother Mary Wollstonecraft
wrote extensively about the French Revolution.
Then it really *must* be Robert Southey, who wrote "The Story
of the Three Bears", which in later tellings would become "Goldilocks"
(Southey's protagonist was an old woman). He was also the author of
"Wat Tyler" (based on the Peasant's Revolt of 1381), "The Battle of
Blenheim" (about the victory over the Franco-Bavarian forces in 1704),
and "The Cataract of Lodore" (same waterfall that Mary Shelley wrote
about). He married twice, and Byron dedicated "Don Juan" to him.
