On March 11, 1818, Frankenstein;
or, The Modern Prometheus was first published. The book, by Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley, is frequently called the world's first science fiction
novel. In Shelley's tale, a scientist animates a creature constructed from
dismembered corpses. The gentle, intellectually gifted creature is enormous and
physically hideous. Cruelly rejected by its creator, it wanders, seeking
companionship and becoming increasingly brutal as it fails to find a mate. Mary
Shelley created the story on a rainy afternoon in 1816 in Geneva, where she was
staying with her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their friend Lord Byron.
Byron proposed they each write a gothic ghost story, but only Mary Shelley
completed hers. Although serving as the basis for the Western horror story and
the inspiration for numerous movies in the 20th century, the book Frankenstein is much more than pop
fiction. The story explores philosophical themes and challenges Romantic ideals
about the beauty and goodness of nature. Mary Shelley led a life nearly as
tumultuous as the monster she created. The daughter of free-thinking
philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, she lost her mother
days after her birth. She clashed with her stepmother and was sent to Scotland
to live with foster parents during her early teens, then eloped with the
married poet Shelley when she was 17. After Shelley's wife committed suicide in
1817, the couple married but spent much of their time abroad, fleeing Shelley's
creditors. Mary Shelley gave birth to five children, but only one lived to
adulthood. Mary was only 24 years old when Percy Shelley drowned in a sailing
accident; she went on to edit two volumes of his works. She lived on a small
stipend from her father-in-law, Lord Shelley, until her surviving son inherited
his fortune and title in 1844. She died on February 1, 1851 at the age of 53.
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