NATCHITOCHES – Dr. Nicole Lobdell, assistant professor of English in the Louisiana Scholars’ College at Northwestern State University, was invited to discuss her research on the English writer Mary Shelley at the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, Italy, last month. The Keats-Shelley House is a museum dedicated to the British Romantic poets who occupied the house, which is located at 26 Piazza di Spagna in Rome.
Dr. Nicole Lobdell gave a talk on the English writer Mary Shelley at the Keats-Shelley House in Rome to an audience who attended both in-person and virtually via Zoom.
“The curator, Ella Killgallon, of the Keats-Shelley House Museum, invited me to come to Rome and give a public talk at the museum on my research into the early biographies of Mary Shelley, the author of ‘Frankenstein,’” Lobdell explained. “I’ve been working on this research this past three years, and when the curator reached out to me about visiting the museum and giving a talk, I was thrilled. The museum is part of the historic Spanish Steps in the center of Rome and has a large collection of rare books, letters and documents related to Mary Shelley and her family. I’ve been wanting to go there for a few years to see their archives and collections, so it was really fortunate that the director reached out and helped arrange for my visit to the archives and to give a public talk while I was there.”
The talk was titled “Stranger than Fiction: Rediscovering Shelley and Mary (1882).” Lobdell discussed her research of the past three years, tracking down rare copies of a book titled “Shelley and Mary,” which she believes is the first biography of the author Mary Shelley.
“It was believed for many years that there were only 12 copies of this book in existence, but in my three years of research and traveling to archives and libraries, I’ve found more than 30 copies survive and the most interesting part is that each copy is different. After they were printed, some of the copies had additional letters added to them, some had pages cut out and many of them have handwritten notes added to them, but the notes change based on the copy,” she said. “In my talk, I compared the differences in the copies I’ve found and shared my experiences from the past three years of locating so many different copies. My talk was enthusiastically received by a really engaged audience, which is very encouraging as I continue working on this research.”
Lobdell has been interested in Mary Shelley’s life since she first read “Frankenstein” in middle school.
“This project, however, is the type of archival mystery project that I always dreamed of finding when I was a student. It combines literary research with a bit of a mystery. I don’t know how many copies of this book are out there, and every time I find one, I never quite know what it will contain or how it will be different. So, the past few years have been exciting, and my research has taken me all over the U.S. and overseas to the U.K., Ireland, Belgium and now Italy.”
Lobdell last visited Rom nearly 30 years ago.
“It was wonderful to become reacquainted with the city and the food,” she said. “Although I was busy working in the archives during the day, I did take time out to go on a food tour one evening through the Trastevere district in Rome, which is known for its restaurants serving lots of traditional Italian and Roman foods. The pizza and gelato were fantastic and probably my favorite part of the tour.”
Information on the Keats-Shelley House Museum is available at https://ksh.roma.it/. An advertisement for Lobdell’s talk can be viewed here: https://ksh.roma.it/events/stranger-fiction-rediscovering-shelley-and-mary.
Information on the Louisiana Scholars’ College is available at https://www.nsula.edu/academics/the-louisiana-scholars-college/.