Percy Shelley was a great friend of Lord Byron, but his character was a little different. He was a well-intentioned and idealistic poet who unwittingly left a trail of destruction in his wake. He was the son of a landowner and educated at Eton, where he was known as “Mad Shelley” for his interest in the new science of electricity. He was bullied terribly and developed a hatred of the social system, becoming a passionate supporter of the French Revolution.

雪莱是拜伦的好朋友，但他们的性格有点不同。他是个善良的理想主义诗人，偶尔无意中留下点破坏的痕迹。他是一个地主的儿子，就读于伊顿公学，因为对电力新科学的爱好被人们称为“疯狂的雪莱”。他深深地受害于社会制因此特别仇恨它，后来成了法国大革命热情的支持者。

At Oxford, he wrote a pamphlet entitled “The Necessity of Atheism” that was sold in a bookshop directly opposite his college and led to his expulsion. He became estranged from his father and was forever in need of money. With a growing family and a lurid reputation within England, Shelley left for a peripatetic life in Italy in 1818. He dragged his family and hangers-on from Florence to Pisa, then to Naples, and finally Livorno, where he drowned in 1822.

在牛津，他写了本名为“无神论的必要性”的小册子，并在大学正对面出售。因此学校开除了他。后来他日渐与父亲疏远而且总是缺钱。随着孩子增多，而且雪莱在英格兰的名誉也是骇人听闻，1818年他前往意大利过着居无定所的生活。他拖家带口从佛罗伦萨到比萨，然后到了那不勒斯，最后到了利沃诺，却于1822年在那里溺水生亡。

He called for revolution throughout Britain even when it annoyed those around him and became dangerous, resulting in an attempt on his life by government spies in 1813. He truly believed that literature could change the course of history, and his poetic works abound with figures of Promethean energy that transcend their time and circumstances.

即使惹怒了众人，自己也身处险境，他还是坚持呼吁全英国都发动革命。1813年政府密探甚至不得不去调查他的生活。他深信文学能够改变历史的进程，而他诗歌作品中塑造的有着普罗米修斯精神的人物也可以超越时空的限制。

He also had a habit of attracting young women and then discarding them. At 19, he eloped with the 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook, only to dump her for Mary Godwin while Harriet was pregnant with his child. She later drowned herself in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Mary Godwin's half-sister also killed herself after falling for Shelley and being rejected by him and his coterie of admirers.

他喜欢吸引少女的芳心，然后抛弃她们。他19岁便与16岁的哈里特·维斯布鲁克私奔，而当哈里特怀着她的孩子的时候他却为了追求玛丽·戈德温抛弃了她。她后来溺死在海德公园的蛇形湖里。玛丽·戈德温同父异母的妹妹也爱上了雪莱，但是遭到他拒绝，随后因没能进入他的粉丝团之后自杀身亡。