Mary Shelley

5 Scientific Influences Behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

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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

Why Frankenstein Is the Birth of Modern Science Fiction

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1831 frontispiece to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

When people think of science fiction, they often picture rockets, Martians, or far-flung futures. Yet the genre’s roots stretch back more than 200 years to a young woman writing by candlelight. In 1818, Mary Shelley published Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus—a novel many consider the first modern work of science fiction. With that one book, … Read more