Composed in July 1816 while touring the Chamonix Valley, “Mont Blanc” was published in the Shelleys’ 1817 History of a Six Weeks’ Tour, a travel narrative concerning two trips taken by the Shelleys and Claire Clairmont (Mary Shelley’s stepsister). There are two versions of “Mont Blanc”—the first, the version found in History of a Six Weeks’ Tour, and the second, a version which came to light in the Scrope Davies Notebook discovered in December 1976. Leader and O’Neill’s Major Works prints both versions as version A and version B, where Reiman and Fraistat’s Shelley’s Poetry and Prose prints the version found in History of a Six Weeks’ Tour but with some variants found in the Scrope Davies Notebook. However, both versions of the poem demonstrate Shelley’s technical accomplishments and showcase the imaginative power while critiquing...

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Citation: Callaghan, Madeleine. "Mont Blanc". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 April 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34179, accessed 14 December 2025.]