Mary Shelley: The Eternal Dream
Creative Team
writer: ALESSANDRO DI VIRGILIO
illustrator: MANUELA SANTONI
publisher: MAD CAVE STUDIOS
Written by Seth Adrian Romo
Mary Shelley: The Eternal Dream reads like a love letter to the mother of science fiction. With its strong prose, clever illustrative style that leverages texture and spots of red, this semi-biographical comic gives context to the world that shaped Shelley’s life.
Like all lives, readers learn how Shelley’s was one of coincidences. The people who happened to connect, the meeting of lovers at just the right time, and the tragedy that warped paths all worked together to shape the life of Mary Shelley.
Written by Author Alessandro di Virgilio, illustrated by Manuela Santoni, and translated from Italian to English by Lucy Lenzi, readers are introduced to the life of Mary Shelley, an educated girl born from a mother who was vocal about women’s issues, spent much of her youth bored due to the lack of intellectual challenges. As she ventured to shape her own life, the different pieces fall into place that encouraged her love of writing.
This series takes liberties and assumptions of feelings and dreams sprinkled throughout the story, but it’s never done in a way that is far-fetched. Instead, readers will find themselves experiencing a deeply intimate retelling of Mary Shelley’s origins to the fateful night she wrote Frankenstein.
Part of the charm of this series is the narration at various points in Shelley’s life. While Shelley never responds, this one-sided conversation still feels personal as the narrator knows what’s ahead and always looks at Shelley endearingly.
The art is reminiscent of political cartoons that emphasize key aspects of the panel and never worries about filling each scene with immense detail. Visually it aligns with the emphasis that the reader is getting a close-up presentation of Mary Shelley’s life, and the illustrations keep this in mind as moments shift from characters talking to rough textured sketches of minimally designed locations. It’s clever in how the art shows what matters to the story and what ultimately feels like a blur where details are less important.
It’s easy to appreciate how the creators genuinely put love and care into telling Mary Shelley’s story—even if moments fall into the realm of magical realism.
Readers who are fans of the famous literary figure or even those curious will find themselves enjoying this slice of life story. It’s filled with love, death, and family drama, and a reminder of the weird ways in which life comes together to bring people to do something special—like the fateful storms that kept Mary Shelley inside allowing her to become inspired to write Frankenstein.
