Mary Diana Dods, a Gentleman and a Scholar

Summary:

In the 1820s Mary Shelley, the celebrated author of Frankenstein, had among her many acquaintances two intriguing friends. One, the author David Lyndsay, had published admired books, poems, and short stories. The other, Walter Sholto Douglas, husband of Mary Shelley’s dear friend Isabella Robinson Douglas, was an aspiring diplomat. In 1830 traces of both men suddenly and completely disappeared from Mary Shelley’s life, but not from historical evidence.

Betty T. Bennett came across both men as she conducted research in the Shelley correspondence. Through years of investigation, Bennett uncovered the improbable truth: David Lyndsay and Walter Sholto Douglas were the same person and, despite historical and legal evidence to the contrary, that person was a woman–Mary Diana Dods, illegitimate daughter of a Scottish aristocrat. Now, nearly two centuries later, her story is revealed as a tale of imagination and defiance, with a sly grin at posterity.