Memoir of John Murray
Mary Shelley John Murray, 19 February 1828
With regard to my novel, I shall be much pleased if you will
undertake its publication . . . Mr.
Marshall mentioned to me that you asked whether I understood
Italian and its patois, saying that you had a view in asking this. I lived
nearly six years in Italy; its language is perfectly familiar to me; and I
should not hesitate to undertake a work that required intimate acquaintance
with it. I should be very glad if you would communicate your ideas to me on the
subject, and happy to comply with your suggestions, so far as my abilities
permit . . . I received Mr.
Gifford’s edition of ‘Ford,’ and Lord
Byron’s works, for which I beg sincerely to thank you.
Your obedient Servant,
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
James Marshall (d. 1832)
Translator and literary jobber; he was a schoolmate and bosom friend of William Godwin, a
drinking companion of Charles Lamb, and associate of Mary Shelley.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley [née Godwin] (1797-1851)
English novelist, daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecaft, and the second wife
of Percy Bysshe Shelley. She is the author of
Frankenstein (1818)
and
The Last Man (1835) and the editor of Shelley's works
(1839-40).
