diff --git a/Lib/shelve.py b/Lib/shelve.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5d443a0fa8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/shelve.py
@@ -0,0 +1,243 @@
+"""Manage shelves of pickled objects.
+
+A "shelf" is a persistent, dictionary-like object.  The difference
+with dbm databases is that the values (not the keys!) in a shelf can
+be essentially arbitrary Python objects -- anything that the "pickle"
+module can handle.  This includes most class instances, recursive data
+types, and objects containing lots of shared sub-objects.  The keys
+are ordinary strings.
+
+To summarize the interface (key is a string, data is an arbitrary
+object):
+
+        import shelve
+        d = shelve.open(filename) # open, with (g)dbm filename -- no suffix
+
+        d[key] = data   # store data at key (overwrites old data if
+                        # using an existing key)
+        data = d[key]   # retrieve a COPY of the data at key (raise
+                        # KeyError if no such key) -- NOTE that this
+                        # access returns a *copy* of the entry!
+        del d[key]      # delete data stored at key (raises KeyError
+                        # if no such key)
+        flag = key in d # true if the key exists
+        list = d.keys() # a list of all existing keys (slow!)
+
+        d.close()       # close it
+
+Dependent on the implementation, closing a persistent dictionary may
+or may not be necessary to flush changes to disk.
+
+Normally, d[key] returns a COPY of the entry.  This needs care when
+mutable entries are mutated: for example, if d[key] is a list,
+        d[key].append(anitem)
+does NOT modify the entry d[key] itself, as stored in the persistent
+mapping -- it only modifies the copy, which is then immediately
+discarded, so that the append has NO effect whatsoever.  To append an
+item to d[key] in a way that will affect the persistent mapping, use:
+        data = d[key]
+        data.append(anitem)
+        d[key] = data
+
+To avoid the problem with mutable entries, you may pass the keyword
+argument writeback=True in the call to shelve.open.  When you use:
+        d = shelve.open(filename, writeback=True)
+then d keeps a cache of all entries you access, and writes them all back
+to the persistent mapping when you call d.close().  This ensures that
+such usage as d[key].append(anitem) works as intended.
+
+However, using keyword argument writeback=True may consume vast amount
+of memory for the cache, and it may make d.close() very slow, if you
+access many of d's entries after opening it in this way: d has no way to
+check which of the entries you access are mutable and/or which ones you
+actually mutate, so it must cache, and write back at close, all of the
+entries that you access.  You can call d.sync() to write back all the
+entries in the cache, and empty the cache (d.sync() also synchronizes
+the persistent dictionary on disk, if feasible).
+"""
+
+from pickle import Pickler, Unpickler
+from io import BytesIO
+
+import collections.abc
+
+__all__ = ["Shelf", "BsdDbShelf", "DbfilenameShelf", "open"]
+
+class _ClosedDict(collections.abc.MutableMapping):
+    'Marker for a closed dict.  Access attempts raise a ValueError.'
+
+    def closed(self, *args):
+        raise ValueError('invalid operation on closed shelf')
+    __iter__ = __len__ = __getitem__ = __setitem__ = __delitem__ = keys = closed
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return '<Closed Dictionary>'
+
+
+class Shelf(collections.abc.MutableMapping):
+    """Base class for shelf implementations.
+
+    This is initialized with a dictionary-like object.
+    See the module's __doc__ string for an overview of the interface.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, dict, protocol=None, writeback=False,
+                 keyencoding="utf-8"):
+        self.dict = dict
+        if protocol is None:
+            protocol = 3
+        self._protocol = protocol
+        self.writeback = writeback
+        self.cache = {}
+        self.keyencoding = keyencoding
+
+    def __iter__(self):
+        for k in self.dict.keys():
+            yield k.decode(self.keyencoding)
+
+    def __len__(self):
+        return len(self.dict)
+
+    def __contains__(self, key):
+        return key.encode(self.keyencoding) in self.dict
+
+    def get(self, key, default=None):
+        if key.encode(self.keyencoding) in self.dict:
+            return self[key]
+        return default
+
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        try:
+            value = self.cache[key]
+        except KeyError:
+            f = BytesIO(self.dict[key.encode(self.keyencoding)])
+            value = Unpickler(f).load()
+            if self.writeback:
+                self.cache[key] = value
+        return value
+
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+        if self.writeback:
+            self.cache[key] = value
+        f = BytesIO()
+        p = Pickler(f, self._protocol)
+        p.dump(value)
+        self.dict[key.encode(self.keyencoding)] = f.getvalue()
+
+    def __delitem__(self, key):
+        del self.dict[key.encode(self.keyencoding)]
+        try:
+            del self.cache[key]
+        except KeyError:
+            pass
+
+    def __enter__(self):
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):
+        self.close()
+
+    def close(self):
+        if self.dict is None:
+            return
+        try:
+            self.sync()
+            try:
+                self.dict.close()
+            except AttributeError:
+                pass
+        finally:
+            # Catch errors that may happen when close is called from __del__
+            # because CPython is in interpreter shutdown.
+            try:
+                self.dict = _ClosedDict()
+            except:
+                self.dict = None
+
+    def __del__(self):
+        if not hasattr(self, 'writeback'):
+            # __init__ didn't succeed, so don't bother closing
+            # see http://bugs.python.org/issue1339007 for details
+            return
+        self.close()
+
+    def sync(self):
+        if self.writeback and self.cache:
+            self.writeback = False
+            for key, entry in self.cache.items():
+                self[key] = entry
+            self.writeback = True
+            self.cache = {}
+        if hasattr(self.dict, 'sync'):
+            self.dict.sync()
+
+
+class BsdDbShelf(Shelf):
+    """Shelf implementation using the "BSD" db interface.
+
+    This adds methods first(), next(), previous(), last() and
+    set_location() that have no counterpart in [g]dbm databases.
+
+    The actual database must be opened using one of the "bsddb"
+    modules "open" routines (i.e. bsddb.hashopen, bsddb.btopen or
+    bsddb.rnopen) and passed to the constructor.
+
+    See the module's __doc__ string for an overview of the interface.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, dict, protocol=None, writeback=False,
+                 keyencoding="utf-8"):
+        Shelf.__init__(self, dict, protocol, writeback, keyencoding)
+
+    def set_location(self, key):
+        (key, value) = self.dict.set_location(key)
+        f = BytesIO(value)
+        return (key.decode(self.keyencoding), Unpickler(f).load())
+
+    def next(self):
+        (key, value) = next(self.dict)
+        f = BytesIO(value)
+        return (key.decode(self.keyencoding), Unpickler(f).load())
+
+    def previous(self):
+        (key, value) = self.dict.previous()
+        f = BytesIO(value)
+        return (key.decode(self.keyencoding), Unpickler(f).load())
+
+    def first(self):
+        (key, value) = self.dict.first()
+        f = BytesIO(value)
+        return (key.decode(self.keyencoding), Unpickler(f).load())
+
+    def last(self):
+        (key, value) = self.dict.last()
+        f = BytesIO(value)
+        return (key.decode(self.keyencoding), Unpickler(f).load())
+
+
+class DbfilenameShelf(Shelf):
+    """Shelf implementation using the "dbm" generic dbm interface.
+
+    This is initialized with the filename for the dbm database.
+    See the module's __doc__ string for an overview of the interface.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, filename, flag='c', protocol=None, writeback=False):
+        import dbm
+        Shelf.__init__(self, dbm.open(filename, flag), protocol, writeback)
+
+
+def open(filename, flag='c', protocol=None, writeback=False):
+    """Open a persistent dictionary for reading and writing.
+
+    The filename parameter is the base filename for the underlying
+    database.  As a side-effect, an extension may be added to the
+    filename and more than one file may be created.  The optional flag
+    parameter has the same interpretation as the flag parameter of
+    dbm.open(). The optional protocol parameter specifies the
+    version of the pickle protocol.
+
+    See the module's __doc__ string for an overview of the interface.
+    """
+
+    return DbfilenameShelf(filename, flag, protocol, writeback)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_shelve.py b/Lib/test/test_shelve.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9ffe2cbeae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/test/test_shelve.py
@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+import unittest
+import shelve
+import glob
+from test import support
+from collections.abc import MutableMapping
+from test.test_dbm import dbm_iterator
+
+def L1(s):
+    return s.decode("latin-1")
+
+class byteskeydict(MutableMapping):
+    "Mapping that supports bytes keys"
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.d = {}
+
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        return self.d[L1(key)]
+
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+        self.d[L1(key)] = value
+
+    def __delitem__(self, key):
+        del self.d[L1(key)]
+
+    def __len__(self):
+        return len(self.d)
+
+    def iterkeys(self):
+        for k in self.d.keys():
+            yield k.encode("latin-1")
+
+    __iter__ = iterkeys
+
+    def keys(self):
+        return list(self.iterkeys())
+
+    def copy(self):
+        return byteskeydict(self.d)
+
+
+class TestCase(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    fn = "shelftemp.db"
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        for f in glob.glob(self.fn+"*"):
+            support.unlink(f)
+
+    def test_close(self):
+        d1 = {}
+        s = shelve.Shelf(d1, protocol=2, writeback=False)
+        s['key1'] = [1,2,3,4]
+        self.assertEqual(s['key1'], [1,2,3,4])
+        self.assertEqual(len(s), 1)
+        s.close()
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, len, s)
+        try:
+            s['key1']
+        except ValueError:
+            pass
+        else:
+            self.fail('Closed shelf should not find a key')
+
+    def test_ascii_file_shelf(self):
+        s = shelve.open(self.fn, protocol=0)
+        try:
+            s['key1'] = (1,2,3,4)
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], (1,2,3,4))
+        finally:
+            s.close()
+
+    def test_binary_file_shelf(self):
+        s = shelve.open(self.fn, protocol=1)
+        try:
+            s['key1'] = (1,2,3,4)
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], (1,2,3,4))
+        finally:
+            s.close()
+
+    def test_proto2_file_shelf(self):
+        s = shelve.open(self.fn, protocol=2)
+        try:
+            s['key1'] = (1,2,3,4)
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], (1,2,3,4))
+        finally:
+            s.close()
+
+    def test_in_memory_shelf(self):
+        d1 = byteskeydict()
+        with shelve.Shelf(d1, protocol=0) as s:
+            s['key1'] = (1,2,3,4)
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], (1,2,3,4))
+        d2 = byteskeydict()
+        with shelve.Shelf(d2, protocol=1) as s:
+            s['key1'] = (1,2,3,4)
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], (1,2,3,4))
+
+        self.assertEqual(len(d1), 1)
+        self.assertEqual(len(d2), 1)
+        self.assertNotEqual(d1.items(), d2.items())
+
+    def test_mutable_entry(self):
+        d1 = byteskeydict()
+        with shelve.Shelf(d1, protocol=2, writeback=False) as s:
+            s['key1'] = [1,2,3,4]
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], [1,2,3,4])
+            s['key1'].append(5)
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], [1,2,3,4])
+
+        d2 = byteskeydict()
+        with shelve.Shelf(d2, protocol=2, writeback=True) as s:
+            s['key1'] = [1,2,3,4]
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], [1,2,3,4])
+            s['key1'].append(5)
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], [1,2,3,4,5])
+
+        self.assertEqual(len(d1), 1)
+        self.assertEqual(len(d2), 1)
+
+    def test_keyencoding(self):
+        d = {}
+        key = 'Pöp'
+        # the default keyencoding is utf-8
+        shelve.Shelf(d)[key] = [1]
+        self.assertIn(key.encode('utf-8'), d)
+        # but a different one can be given
+        shelve.Shelf(d, keyencoding='latin-1')[key] = [1]
+        self.assertIn(key.encode('latin-1'), d)
+        # with all consequences
+        s = shelve.Shelf(d, keyencoding='ascii')
+        self.assertRaises(UnicodeEncodeError, s.__setitem__, key, [1])
+
+    def test_writeback_also_writes_immediately(self):
+        # Issue 5754
+        d = {}
+        key = 'key'
+        encodedkey = key.encode('utf-8')
+        with shelve.Shelf(d, writeback=True) as s:
+            s[key] = [1]
+            p1 = d[encodedkey]  # Will give a KeyError if backing store not updated
+            s['key'].append(2)
+        p2 = d[encodedkey]
+        self.assertNotEqual(p1, p2)  # Write creates new object in store
+
+    def test_with(self):
+        d1 = {}
+        with shelve.Shelf(d1, protocol=2, writeback=False) as s:
+            s['key1'] = [1,2,3,4]
+            self.assertEqual(s['key1'], [1,2,3,4])
+            self.assertEqual(len(s), 1)
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, len, s)
+        try:
+            s['key1']
+        except ValueError:
+            pass
+        else:
+            self.fail('Closed shelf should not find a key')
+
+    def test_default_protocol(self):
+        with shelve.Shelf({}) as s:
+            self.assertEqual(s._protocol, 3)
+
+from test import mapping_tests
+
+class TestShelveBase(mapping_tests.BasicTestMappingProtocol):
+    fn = "shelftemp.db"
+    counter = 0
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
+        self._db = []
+        mapping_tests.BasicTestMappingProtocol.__init__(self, *args, **kw)
+    type2test = shelve.Shelf
+    def _reference(self):
+        return {"key1":"value1", "key2":2, "key3":(1,2,3)}
+    def _empty_mapping(self):
+        if self._in_mem:
+            x= shelve.Shelf(byteskeydict(), **self._args)
+        else:
+            self.counter+=1
+            x= shelve.open(self.fn+str(self.counter), **self._args)
+        self._db.append(x)
+        return x
+    def tearDown(self):
+        for db in self._db:
+            db.close()
+        self._db = []
+        if not self._in_mem:
+            for f in glob.glob(self.fn+"*"):
+                support.unlink(f)
+
+class TestAsciiFileShelve(TestShelveBase):
+    _args={'protocol':0}
+    _in_mem = False
+class TestBinaryFileShelve(TestShelveBase):
+    _args={'protocol':1}
+    _in_mem = False
+class TestProto2FileShelve(TestShelveBase):
+    _args={'protocol':2}
+    _in_mem = False
+class TestAsciiMemShelve(TestShelveBase):
+    _args={'protocol':0}
+    _in_mem = True
+class TestBinaryMemShelve(TestShelveBase):
+    _args={'protocol':1}
+    _in_mem = True
+class TestProto2MemShelve(TestShelveBase):
+    _args={'protocol':2}
+    _in_mem = True
+
+def test_main():
+    for module in dbm_iterator():
+        support.run_unittest(
+            TestAsciiFileShelve,
+            TestBinaryFileShelve,
+            TestProto2FileShelve,
+            TestAsciiMemShelve,
+            TestBinaryMemShelve,
+            TestProto2MemShelve,
+            TestCase
+        )
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    test_main()