5 Scientific Influences Behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Illustration of Luigi Galvani’s experiment showing frog’s legs twitching from contact with metals, demonstrating galvanism.

Mary Shelley didn’t invent Frankenstein out of thin air. When she began writing her novel in 1816, science was pushing the boundaries of life, death, and electricity — and she was paying close attention. Her tale of Victor Frankenstein, a science student obsessed with reanimating the dead, grew directly out of the discoveries and debates … Read more