After Shelley 's first wife committed suicide , Shelley married Mary Godwin ; she later became famous as Mary Shelley , the author of the novel Frankenstein . The day after the news of his death reached England , the Tory newspaper The Courier gloated : `` Shelley , the writer of some infidel poetry , has been drowned , now he knows whether there is God or no. '' A reclining statue of Shelley 's body , depicting him washed up onto the shore , created by sculptor Edward Onslow Ford at the behest of Shelley 's daughter-in-law , Jane , Lady Shelley , is the centerpiece of the Shelley Memorial at University College , Oxford . An 1889 painting by Louis Edouard Fournier , The Funeral of Shelley ( also known as The Cremation of Shelley ) , contains inaccuracies .