THE SHELLEYS - PASSION, BETRAYAL, MYSTERY & POETRY - A TREACHEROUS LIKENESS BY LYNN SHEPHERD

The Shelleys and their mystery 

If you are familiar with the adventurous lives of the Young Romantics and their circle, you’ll love Lynn Shepherd’s new literary mystery, A Treacherous Likeness. If you aren’t,  you may love it even more. 
You’ll find yourself glued to the pages of this mystery novel, based on an intriguing web of shocking discoveries which detective Charles Maddock unveils,  one after the other , while investigating on behalf of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s only surviving son. 
On his quest for missing documents  he gets involved in the mysterious case of Percy Bysshe's first wife's death; he meets Mary Shelley and Claire Clairmont, once Byron's lover, and Mary's half - sister; he discovers his great-uncle once worked on that case and must know much about the secrets hidden in the Shelleys' past. If only he could speak to him, if only the old detective didn't live in a state of total  unconsciousness...

"The Brontës and the Shelleys - Crafting Stories from Lives" : A talk by Juliet Gael at Keats-Shelley House in Rome

Juliet Gael at Keats and Shelley House - Rome

It's been a very pleasant afternoon spent in one of the most spectacular landmarks in Rome, Piazza di Spagna, and more precisely at the Keats and Shelley House. Janice Graham, writing as Juliet Gael, is the author of the critically acclaimed historical novel Romancing Miss Brontë, and is currently working on a follow-up novel that deals with the fascinating lives of the Shelleys. She was the guest author at today's meeting and she gave a  talk  about crafting stories from the lives of iconic literary figures like Charlotte Brontë and Mary Shelley.

Part literary reading, part discussion, and part work-in-progress seminar, Juliet Gael addressed the creative problems involved in romanticising the lives of authors and gave us some tantalising sneak previews into the process of writing her book about the Shelleys.

Starting with E. M Forster's definition of events and story, Juliet conveyed the sense of great respect with which she approached her research and then her creation of a  story - line for Romancing Miss Brontë  .

FRANKENSTEIN AT THE CINEMA - MY REVIEW

Dannis Boyle’s Frankenstein, the  pluriawarded 2011 theatrical production,  has been a terrific success live on stage at the National  Theatre in London and it has after that also been shown worldwide in movie theatres in the original language.  It arrived in Rome yesterday (Cinema Lux) and it’ll be on tonight too (Cinema Barberini).

I can’t imagine how exciting it must have been for the lucky ones  in the audience at the theatre, but it was amazing and enthralling to watch it on screen last night for me. It was like being on stage with the cast, so with  a really privileged perspective on the spectacular staging.

I’ve always been astonished by the idea of a 19th century woman, Mary Shelley, writing such a modern,  evergreen, disquieting  story and at her young age (19 years old).  However, Nick Dear, whose adaptation Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee - Miller brought on stage, surprised and moved me with his brilliant work, which turns the novel into a  touching play.

The originality of the show is in the idea of a symbiotic relationship between created and  creator, the monster and the scientist who gave him life, unusually rendered with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee-Miller alternating and taking turns to play the two main roles, that of Victor Frankenstein and that of his unnaturally created monster.

The version I saw last night was with Cumberbatch as the creature and Lee-Miller as Victor Frankenstein.