She was the 17 year-old daughter of noted philosophers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft; he was a 22-year-old trapped in an unhappy marriage. Their love was forbidden...that didn't matter. They inspired each other and became one of the most memorable literary couples of all time.

For a short time in the late 1810s and early 1820s, they were the epicenter of an expatriate colony of artists inhabiting villas and sleepy coastal towns in Italy. In the way they pursued their love and lived their lives—independent even when united in matrimony—Percy and Mary were far ahead of their time.

Read about their life and marriage in this book.