Mathilde Blind in the context of "Shelley Society"

The Shelley Society was a Victorian literary society founded in London in December 1885 by Frederick James Furnivall to promote the study and appreciation of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Its activities included public lectures, published texts, and sponsored performances, most notably a private staging of The Cenci in 1886. At its height it had around 400 members, among them writers and reformers such as William Michael Rossetti, Henry S. Salt, George Bernard Shaw, and Mathilde Blind, with women contributing actively to its publications and discussions. Provincial and overseas branches were also established, and lectures addressed Shelley's poetry, politics, religion, and ethics, including his advocacy of vegetarianism. The society declined in the 1890s but continued in reduced form into the early 20th century. It has been noted for its role in the late-Victorian "single-author" society movement, for debates over Shelley's radicalism, and for its influence on later reform groups such as the Humanitarian League.