Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be immortal? Well in our eleventh episode we provide an answer, courtesy of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's The Mortal Immortal: A Tale. Commissioned in 1833 for literary annual, The Keepsake, the story tells of a man who ceases to age when he drinks a strange concoction created by his master, Cornelius Agrippa. At first, he views his longevity as a gift, but as the years go on, his opinion begins to change. The title for the story came from Keats' poem, Endymion, and the inspiration from an engraving of a painting by Henry Perronet Briggs. Although Shelley wrote a number of tales for The Keepsake, this one is probably the best known, having become an anthology favourite over the years. It is an enthralling piece, which deals with many of the same themes as her more famous, Frankenstein. It also uses a similar first-person narrative style. Shelley will forever be remembered as the writer of Frankenstein, but as this story proves, her other work is definitely worth a look. Hopefully we've done it justice. C.J. Carter-Stephenson is on narration duty as always and the music is by Kevin MacLeod. Now it's time to wind back the years once again... the past beckons.
