Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from Oxford after publishing a pamphlet defending atheism and became known for radical political and religious views as well as for his poetry. His relationship with Mary Godwin, later Mary Shelley, led them into a life of travel and controversy before they settled for extended periods in Italy.

In Italy Shelley moved within the expatriate literary circle that included Lord Byron and wrote major works such as Prometheus Unbound, Adonais and Ode to the West Wind. He drowned in 1822 when his sailing boat sank in the Gulf of La Spezia, leaving a body of work that became increasingly influential after his death.