10 Authors Who Died In Mysterious Or Strange Ways

The strange thing about Percy’s death is really the thing that happened during his cremation.

Percy Shelley was a romantic poet and a close friend of Lord Byron. His most famous works are To a Skylark, The Masque of Anarchy, and (widely considered to be his masterpiece) Prometheus Unbound. He was married to Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (or The Modern Prometheus).

Percy died by drowning when his boat sank during a sudden storm on the Gulf of Spezia. Some people believe he was assassinated for political reasons. There is some evidence to suggest he was attacked by an intelligence officer some time before his death, but it’s fairly safe to say it was an accident.

Here’s the strange bit: Percy Shelley’s body was cremated on the beach at Viareggio but his heart had calcified and refused to burn. Edward Trelawny, a novelist and friend of Percy Shelley, was at the funeral and grabbed the whole heart from the pyre. He gave the heart to Mary (who was not at the funeral, as women were not allowed in those days) and she kept it her whole life. It is believed his heart is still kept at the vault in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church in Bournemouth.