Frankenstein

First published in 1818, 'Frankenstein' is the classic gothic horror novel by Mary Shelley, an English novelist. Victor Frankenstein, a youthful university student, becomes smitten with uncovering the secret to creating life. Over several months, he makes a creature out of body parts swiped from graves. Yet after he brings his work to life, Victor becomes fearful and, desiring nothing to do with his creation, deserts the 'monster'. Forsaken by the world because of his appearance, the monster lives in hiding but probes for his creator. When he confronts Victor, the monster beseeches for kindness, and receiving none, intimidates retribution.

Shelley's masterpiece still maintains a powerful grip on fantasy and has been the stimulant for considerable horror movies, television, and stage adaptations.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797–1851), daughter of political radical William Godwin and feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, grew up among the leading voices of the Romantic movement. She met and wed poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816. When the Shelleys spent that summer on Lake Geneva with friends—among them, Lord Byron—Byron challenged the writers to a ghost-story contest. Mary Shelley’s sketch inspired her novel Frankenstein (1818), influenced by her loss of her infant daughter in 1815. Four years after Frankenstein’s publication, her husband drowned. The tragedy haunted Shelley for the rest of her life, which she dedicated to annotating her husband’s writing, publishing her own novels, and revising Frankenstein for republication.