Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley.
Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in
an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first
edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first
appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821.
Shelley travelled through Europe in 1815 along the river Rhine in Germany, stopping in Gernsheim,
17 kilometres (11 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where two centuries before, an alchemist
engaged in experiments.[2][3][4] She then journeyed to the region of Geneva, Switzerland, where
much of the story takes place. Galvanism and occult ideas were topics of conversation among her
companions, particularly her lover and future husband Percy B. Shelley. In 1816, Mary, Percy and
Lord Byron had a competition to see who could write the best horror story.[5] After thinking for days,
Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein after imagining a scientist who created life and was
horrified by what he had made.[6]
Though Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement,
Brian Aldiss has argued that it should be considered the first true science fiction story. In contrast to
previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science fiction, Aldiss states that
the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and "turns to modern experiments in the
laboratory" to achieve fantastic results.[7] The novel has had a considerable influence on literature
and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories, films, and plays.
Since the publication of the novel, the name "Frankenstein" has often been used to erroneously refer
to the monster, rather than his creator/father.[8][9][10]
This study source was downloaded by 100000779852007 from CourseHero.com on 09-26-2021 06:43:32 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/106819625/Frankensteindocx/
This study resource was
shared via CourseHero.com
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
