Harriet Shelley - Letter to Eliza Westbrook, Shelley and her parents

Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. Harriet Shelley drowned herself in December 1816, aged twenty-one. Her body was recovered from the Serpentine on 10 December, and an inquest into the death of one 'Harriet Smith' was held the following day.

Although her precise movements in the months leading up to her death are uncertain, it is clear that she was living away from home, that she had taken a lover, and that she was pregnant. This is Harriet's last letter. Muddled and full of self-recrimination, it reveals the nervous exhaustion and profound depression of her final days.

Date Published: 2 December 2010
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Contributors: Hannah Morrell
Keywords: mary shelley, percy bysshe shelley, harriet shelley, shelley's ghost, journal, History, biography, #greatwriters
Cite: Harriet Shelley - Letter to Eliza Westbrook, Shelley and her parents at https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ via https://dev.writersinspire.it.ox.ac.uk/content/harriet-shelley-letter-eliza-westbrook-shelley-her-parents. Published on 02 December 2010. Accessed on 15 May 2026.
If reusing this resource please attribute as follows: Harriet Shelley - Letter to Eliza Westbrook, Shelley and her parents (https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/), licensed as Creative Commons BY-NC-SA (2.0 UK).