Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley

As one of the major Romantic poets, Percy Bysshe Shelley was not only a genius but a rebellious British aristocrat. He wanted to live according to his values. However, both his family and the establishment cast him aside for his ideas. In 1822, he tragically died at the young age of 29 when his sailing boat sank off the coast of Viareggio, Italy.

Ariel ou la vie de Shelley, a French well-documented fictional biography by André Maurois told Shelley's tragic story with a respectful sense of authenticity together with elegant poetic flair. First published in 1923, the biography met immediate success in both France and England.

This new unabridged translation by Alix Daniel, illustrated with audacity by the London artist Anwot brings back to life the original work for the reader to follow the rebellious life of Shelley from his schooling at Eton College to his complicated adult life in the company of Mary Shelley, his second wife, Lord Byron and other artists and thinkers of the time.

Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley is an unusual but fascinating read for anyone eager to discover what could have been the life and death of the prodigy poet, known as the Mad Shelley at Eton College, loved and admired by Lord Byron and referred more than 100 years after his death as "one of the most advance sceptical intellects ever to write a poem" by the great American literary critic Harold Bloom. 

In 1923, André Maurois biography met immediate success, so much so that later on, Allen Lane chose its translation by Ella D'Arcy for the first ever Penguin's title.  There again, the work met immediate success with 60 000 copies sold the first year.

André Maurois biography has been re-edited many times not only by Grasset, but also by the edition E.G Mornay, Calman-Levy, Club français du Livre and Rombaldi.  Alix Daniel's translation is its second unabridged translation.