wihm day 5/Mary Shelley&Frankenstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein a few times – good book. What a concept – sewing together bones and skin and putting a brain into a dead head and re-animating it all back to life. It’s a real monster story.   Shelley was really intrigued by the work of Darwin at the time and also the concept of religion vs. science which is partly why she wrote Frankenstein. She wanted to explore the idea of how ‘man’ wields his power through science to manipulate his own idea of destiny – usually with tragic outcomes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the other reasons she wrote it was a good old fashioned bet. She was living in Switzerland, housebound due to terrible weather and  hanging out with her husband and Lord Byron.  Lord Byron suggested that they all write their own ghost stories to pass the time so Mary wrote a short story about Frankenstein that she later expanded on to create the novel. She based her story on the myth of Prometheus. Frankenstein was first published in 1818 anonymously then again in 1823 with Shelley’s name attached.  Mary Shelley was a kick-ass woman in horror who wrote a story far ahead of it’s time!