FRANKENFEST

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley's monstrous creation with a day of classics featuring Frankenstein and his monster. 

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque but sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition of the novel was published anonymously in London March 11, 1818, when she was only 20-years-old. No author was actually named on the first edition's pages but the name "Shelley" did appear on the spine and thus readers assumed the author was her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary Shelley's name first appeared on the second edition, published in France in 1823.

Shelley travelled through Europe in 1814, journeying along the river Rhine in Germany with a stop in Gernsheim (only mere miles away from Frankenstein Castle), where, two centuries before, an alchemist was engaged in experiments. Later, she travelled in the region of Geneva, Switzerland —where much of the story takes place—and the topic of galvanism and other similar occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her lover and future husband, Percy. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron, and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made; her dream later evolved into the novel's story.

And thus the monster was born...