Shelley was born August 4, 1792 at Field Place in Sussex. Timothy Shelly, his father, was a wealthy country squire. At the age of 12, he was sent to Eton, where he completely failed to adhere to the traditions there. While at Eton, Shelley discovered the works of William Godwin and he embraced the ideals of the French Revolution.

Shelley went on to attend Oxford University, starting in 1810. Of course, his experience had Oxford turned out ever more dramatic than his years at Eton. Shelley wrote articles defending Daniel Isaac Eaton, a bookseller charged with selling books by Tom Paine and the much persecuted Radical publisher, Richard Carlile. He also wrote The Necessity of Atheism, a pamphlet that attacked the idea of compulsory Christianity.

Oxford University was so shocked when they discovered that Shelley had written the outrageous and atheistic material that on on March 25, 1811, they expelled him.

It didn't take Shelley long to shock his family once again, though. At the age of 19, he eloped with Harriet Westbrook, a 16-year old daughter of a coffeehouse/tavern keeper, to Scotland. Apparently, his father never forgave him for his rebellion.

He lived in Ireland for a time after his marriage. He and Harriet scattered revolutionary pamphlets from their hotel balcony. When no dramatic response seemed forthcoming, the couple moved back to London. He continued to write revolutionary material, including A Declaration of Rights.

In 1814, Shelley fell in love with 16-year old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. He told Harriet, "Our connection was not one of passion and impulse." But she refused to allow him to live with Mary, and she refused to allow her to live with them, so Mary and Percy eloped.

They travelled in Europe for a few years, while Shelley continued writing. They returned to England, then travelled to Switzerland in 1816. That year, two tramatic events occured. The first was the suicide of Mary's sister Fanny. And the second was the suicide of Harriet, Shelley's first wife.

After Harriet's suicide, they could no longer stay in England, with Shelley being considered a scoundrel. He also lost custody of the children that he'd had with Harriet, so they moved to Italy, where he spent the last years of his life.

In 1819, he composed: "The Cenci," "Ode to the West Wind," "Peter Bell the Third," and Mask of Anarchy. In that year, too, he completed Prometheus Unbound. During that year, they stayed in Byron's villa in Venice, but they moved to Florence in the winter of that year. After that, he composed: "To a Skylark, To Night," Epipsychidion, Triumph of Life, and Defense of Poetry.

On July 8, 1822, Shelley and his friend Williams took a trip in the sailboat Ariel. Unfortuanetely, they were caught in a storm. Their bodies were recovered ten days later, when they washed up on shore. Shelley's body was cremated, then his heart and ashes were buried in a Protestant cemetary in Rome.

Byron wrote to Moore after Shelley's death, saying: "There is another man gone about whom the world was ill-natured, and ignorantly, and brutally mistaken."