Thomas, Percy's father, visited him in London after his expulsion, insisting that he renounce his friend Hogg and his beliefs (beliefs which included: atheism, vegetarianism, free love, and political radicalism). Percy refused. The result was an estrangement with his father which was complete when Percy eloped with Harriet Westbrook, the 16-year-old daughter of a coffee house keeper. Shelley now sought a vocation: he went to Ireland for a few months to campaign for political refore; his poem "Queen Mab" appeared in 1813.
The following year he met his hero William Godwin. William Godwin was the guthor of Political Justice. Percy fell in love with Godwin's daughter Mary, a radical and idealist like himself. Mary was the daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneering feminist who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Mary would later write Frankenstein and The Last Man. Taking along Mary's step-sister Jane Clairmont (daugher of the second Mrs. Godwin), Mary and Percy eloped to Switzerland in July 1814.
An inheritance from his grandfather of 1000 per annum in 1815 alleviated Percy's financial difficulties, which were often caused by his generosity to others. His domestic situation became quite complex: Harriet, who had already given him a daughter, Ianthe, bore a son, Charles, on November 30, 1814, after Percy had been living with Mary for several months. A few months later (February 22, 1815, Mary bore a daughter, wo lived only a few days. In January 1816, Percy and Mary's son, William, was born. In 1816, Percy, Mary, and Jane Clairmont (who had reinvented herself as Claire ad become Lord Byron's mistress) returned to Geneva, where they met Byron and his friend (and doctor) John Polidori. They visited each other daily and regularly sailed together on the lake. The famous ghost story-telling competition which lead Mary to come up with Frankenstein occurred in June. After they returned to England, Mary's half-sister Fannie Imlay committed suicide in October, and less than a month later, Harriet (apparently pregnant by another man) drowned herself. Shelley married Mary in December but lost custody of his children by Harriet to her family.
In 1818, the Shelley's left England for Italy, where their infant daughter Clara and then their son William died. Mary was said to have blamed Percy for the deaths of their two children. Percy Florence was born. Percy gathered a circle of friends, including Byron, around him. Despite his radical views and despite his habit of falling in love with young women in this circle (like Jane Williams, common-law wife of Edward Williams, and Emilia Viviani) Percy was the peacemaker of the group. Byron said that everyone else he knew was a beast compared to Shelley. Returning by sailing yacht from a peacemaking mission on behalf of Byron to Claire Clairmont, Percy drowned at sea during a fierce storm on July 8, 1822.. Mary edited his poems and advanced his fame after his death.
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