About Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus
Hauntingly Faustian, Frankenstein is the uncanny tale of dark scientific experimentation and its monstrous consequences. Known as the first science fiction novel, Shelley's masterpiece redefined gothic horror literature.
Young scientist Victor Frankenstein pillages graveyards for body parts and organs to fulfil his macabre desire to create life. Piecing together fragments of corpses to fashion the 'perfect' human, Frankenstein's unorthodox experiment plunges into a nightmare when he shocks his creation to life with electricity. The grotesque being that emerges is a monster beyond his creator's capabilities, and he is sent out into the world alone, confused, and consumed by an uncontrollable hatred for Victor Frankenstein.
First published in 1818, this volume may never have been imagined if it were not for what is now known as the 'Lost Summer of 1816'. 200 years ago, Lord Byron rented the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva. Accompanied by friends, including his physician, John William Polidori, the poet Percy Shelley, and Shelley's 19-year-old mistress, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the group stayed at the mansion for three days. This cold and stormy summer trip became a writing competition among the friends to pen the scariest story. The work from that weekend has since inspired many horror and ghost stories, the most notable of which was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Not to be missed by fans of gothic horror, this classic novel is one of the most chilling tales of the cycle of destruction while artfully questioning what it means to be human.
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