The twin tragedies alter the understanding of the themes of Frankenstein. It is often read as a warning about the perils of science, but as the daughter of Wollstonecraft, England’s most prominent early ­promoter of women’s rights, Shelley was concerned with the impact of motherhood and the responsibility of birth. Her own mother, after all, had not survived her birth, dying in 1797.

Maureen Lennon, the playwright behind a new musical drama about Wollstonecraft and Shelley, agrees the two women were chiefly concerned with the limitations on women. “Fanny has such a tragic story,” said Lennon, whose production Mary and the Hyenas opens in Hull next month before its London run in Wilton’s Music Hall. “When Fanny was born Wollstonecraft wrote an amazing piece about how frightened she felt when she looked at her baby. She wanted, she said, for her to be ­principled and powerful, but also happy. She feared that one of these aims would have to be sacrificed.” {read}