Percy Bysshe Shelley October. On 10December 1816 the body of Shelley's estranged wife Harriet was found in an advanced state of pregnancy, drowned in the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London. Shelley had made generous provision for Harriet and their children in his will and had paid her a monthly allowance as had her father. It is thought that Harriet, who had left her children with her sister Eliza and had been living alone under the name of Harriet Smith, mistakenly believed herself to have been abandoned by her new lover, 36-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Maxwell, who had been deployed abroad, after a landlady
The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley not mention the atheism that he shared with Percy Shelley, fearing the effect that this disclosure could have on his reputation. He went to great lengths in the book to portray himself as conservative and loyal to the traditions of England. Hogg was careful not to divulge potentially embarrassing information about Shelley's living friends, however. He also failed to mention his own passion for Harriet Shelley, Percy Shelley's first wife. Harriet was portrayed very favourably in the book, although Hogg did discuss her preoccupation with suicide. Percy's father Timothy Shelley was portrayed very negatively, and the book characterized Percy Shelley