became the neighbours of Lord Byron
Mary Shelley makes the intimacy
with Lord
Byron sound almost accidental. In fact, it was all carefully arranged
by Claire Clairmont, Mary's
step-sister, who in a bizarre case of oneupmanship that trumped Mary's
affair with Percy Bysshe Shelley,
had managed to seduce Byron two days
before he departed England in April 1816. By the time the Shelley
party reached Switzerland, Claire
realized that she was pregnant from this
liaison. Although the relationship continued in Geneva, Byron soon tired
of Claire and came to dislike her, so much so that in subsequent years he
would see the Shelleys only on condition of her absence.
