Valperga or The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca Mary Shelley Valperga, published in 1823, the year after Percy Bysshe Shelley's death is a romance of the 14th century in Italy, during the height of the struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, when each state and almost each town was at war with the other; a condition of things which lends itself to romance. Mary Shelley's intimate acquaintance with Italy and Italians gives...