Introduction

This chapter provides information about the Shelley-Clairmont circle. Ironically, even Lady Jane Shelley would erase Claire’s presence completely in her Shelley Memorials, stating that “Mrs. Shelley [Mary] resided at Marlow, in company with her children, and with a little daughter of Lord Byron, called Allegra, and sometimes Alba”, thereby negating Claire’s existence. Clara Knox’s visited Claire in England in 1849, then visited Mary Shelley, Percy Florence Shelley, and Jane Shelley. Claire was unable to accompany her niece on that occasion, but she clearly assumed that Clara would be well taken care of in the Shelley home. The history that links the Godwin-Shelley circle to the Clairmont family is extraordinary. It is the earnest hope of this editor that further journals and/or letters will be discovered in future years, enabling researchers to shed more light on this exceptional family whose connections to the extended Shelley family augment our understanding of that primary circle.