Ariel: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major Romantic poets was actually a rebellious British aristocrat of the early ninety century, who wanted to live according to his values, but tragically died in 1822 at the age of 29 when his sailing boat sank off the coast of Viareggio, Italy.

However, he has left for us and our future many poems, novels and essays, and could even be the still unrecognised co-author of Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus, signed by Mary Shelley, his wife. 

Despite being an aristocrat and a genius writer, his short life was burdened by financial impediment, family rejection and death.

Ariel, a fictional biography by André Maurois was first published in 1923 by Grasset to be soon after beautifully translated into english by Ella D'Arcy.

In 1935, the newly founded Penguin Books published Ariel as its first ever title. 

With a keen sense of authenticity and aesthetic flair, André Maurois vividly recounts the emotional and familial struggles, compounded by financial difficulties and deaths, that punctuated the brief life of this genius British aristocrat poet who lived till the end as a social outcast.

Cybirdy Publishing hopes Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley, illustrated new translation by Alix Daniel brings back to life the original biography and helps readers of the classics to comprehend and appreciate the man who, according to the American critic Harold Bloom had one of the most advance sceptical intellects ever to write a poem.