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Mary Shelley's creation of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a fascinating tale, almost as compelling as the novel itself. It began during what's now known as the "Year Without a Summer" in 1816.
The Setting: Mary, then 18 years old (her full name was Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin at the time; she later married Percy Bysshe Shelley), was in Geneva, Switzerland. She was staying with her future husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, their friend Lord Byron, and Byron's physician, John Polidori.
The "Ghost Story" Challenge: The weather was unusually dreary and rainy due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the previous year, which caused a global climate anomaly. Trapped indoors at the Villa Diodati, the group decided to entertain themselves by reading German ghost stories and then challenging each other to write their own.
The Inspiration - A "Waking Dream": While Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Polidori came up with their own tales (Polidori's eventually led to The Vampyre, a foundational vampire story), Mary initially struggled. However, after listening to discussions between Byron and Shelley about scientific experiments, the nature of life, and galvanism (the idea of reanimating tissue with electricity), she had a vivid "waking dream" or nightmare.
She later described seeing "the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together" who then beholds a "hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion ..." This terrifying vision sparked the idea for Frankenstein.
The Writing Process: She began writing the story that night, starting with the iconic opening line: "It was on a dreary night of November..." Much of the novel was penned in Bath, England, during the autumn and winter of 1816-1817, after the group returned from Geneva.
Publication: Frankenstein was first published anonymously in London on January 1, 1818, when Mary Shelley was 20 years old. Her name first appeared on the second edition, published in Paris in 1821.
Gothic Tradition: Shelley drew heavily on the Gothic genre, using elements of suspense, horror, and remote, atmospheric settings.
Romanticism and Enlightenment: The novel is often seen as a bridge between the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and scientific progress, and the Romantic movement's focus on emotion, nature, and the sublime. It explores the dangers of scientific ambition unchecked by moral responsibility and the profound loneliness of being an outcast.
Literary Influences: Her parents, both prominent intellectuals (William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft), heavily influenced her. The novel also shows influences from Milton's Paradise Lost and Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, among others.
Mary Shelley's groundbreaking work of fiction essentially invented the science fiction genre!
