ABSTRACT
The author and adventurer Edward John Trelawny (1792–1881) was described by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in 1832 as ‘a strange yet wonderful being endued with genius but destroyed by being nothing’. Trelawny called on Godwin for the first time in May 1828, and it is thought that Godwin subsequently modelled the character of Borromeo in Cloudesley on his exotic visitor. In early 1832 Godwin read Adventures of a Younger Son, after which Trelawny became a regular caller until he left for America in the following January. Trelawny’s Records of Byron, Shelley, and the Author reflects Trelawny’s increased wish to place himself at the forefront of the narrative of the two poets’ final years. In addition, Records includes stories not published in Recollections, along with some additional critical remarks concerning Byron and Mary Shelley.
