11 Fascinating Insights Into Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’

Frankenstein, the chilling tale of a deranged scientist who resurrects the dead, only to realize he has unleashed a monster, remains one of the most iconic horror stories, even after over 200 years. Here’s a breakdown of the 1818 classic that forever shaped our anxieties about the consequences of mankind trying to play God.

1. Frankenstein was penned by a young teenager.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s adolescence was anything but ordinary. At just 16, she ran away with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and within two years, she gave birth to two children. In 1816, the couple, joined by Godwin’s stepsister Claire Clairmont, ventured to Switzerland to visit Lord Byron at Villa Diodati. During this trip, 18-year-old Mary began writing Frankenstein, which was published in 1818, when she was only 20.

2. The novel was born out of a ghost story challenge.

During the “year without a summer,” following the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, which caused drastic weather disruptions and endless rain, Godwin and Shelley visited Switzerland. Trapped indoors, they read ghost stories from the book Fantasmagoriana. It was then that Lord Byron suggested a contest to see who could craft the best ghost story: Byron, Mary, Percy, or Byron’s physician, John Polidori.

Ultimately, neither Byron nor Percy completed a ghost story, although Polidori went on to write The Vampyre—a work that still influences vampire tales today—drawing inspiration from Byron’s idea. (Byron’s contribution was eventually published as “A Fragment.”)

3. Mary Shelley claimed the idea came to her in a dream.

Initially, Mary struggled with writer’s block, unable to come up with a compelling ghost story. Then, she experienced a waking vision—“I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think,” she recalled. In the introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein [PDF], she described her vision as follows:

“I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had assembled. I saw the grotesque apparition of a man lying outstretched, and then, with the operation of some powerful mechanism, it began to show signs of life. … He lies dormant; but he is stirred; he opens his eyes; behold, the dreadful creature stands at his bedside, pulling back the curtains, and gazing at him with yellow, watery, yet searching eyes.”

Mary opened her eyes and realized she had discovered her story. “What frightened me will frighten others,” she thought. She began writing it the very next day.

4. She was also influenced by science.

Real-world science had a significant impact on Shelley, including the exploration of the North Pole and the then-uncertain causes of its magnetism, as well as the research of chemist Sir Humphry Davy (whose lectures Shelley had attended with her father as a child). Another major influence was the recently discovered phenomenon of galvanism, in which muscles twitch due to electrical stimulation. “Perhaps a corpse could be revived; galvanism had shown such possibilities,” Shelley pondered later. “Perhaps the components of a creature could be assembled, brought together, and imbued with life.” During their time stuck indoors in Switzerland, Shelley and her companions discussed galvanism, and these discussions played a role in shaping Frankenstein.

5. Shelley wrote Frankenstein amid personal tragedy.

Before beginning Frankenstein, Shelley had given birth to a daughter who tragically passed away shortly after. (In fact, only one of the Shelleys' four children survived to adulthood.) Shortly after the baby’s death, she wrote in her journal, “Dream that my little baby came to life again—that it had only been cold & that we rubbed it by the fire & it lived—I awake & find no baby—I think about the little thing all day.” These painful events, along with the suicide of her half-sister Fanny, likely contributed to the novel's creation.

6. Frankenstein is the name of the scientist, not the monster.

In the story, Victor Frankenstein is the scientist. The monster, on the other hand, remains nameless and is referred to as “monster,” “creature,” “dæmon,” and “it.” However, if you’ve mistakenly called the monster “Frankenstein,” you’re not alone. As early as 1890, The Scots Observer criticized this common mistake, saying that Frankenstein “presented the common pressman with one of his most beloved blunders”—mixing up the two characters.

7. The novel shares its name with a castle.

Mary invented the name Frankenstein, but it’s actually a German term meaning “Stone of the Franks.” Additionally, historian Radu Florescu asserted that the Shelleys visited Castle Frankenstein during a journey along the Rhine River. While there, they learned about an alchemist named Konrad Dippel, who had lived in the castle. Dippel was attempting to create an elixir, known as Dippel’s Oil, which he believed would allow people to live for over a century. Like Victor Frankenstein, Dippel was rumored to have exhumed bodies to conduct experiments. However, some historians argue against the connection, noting that there’s no reference to a castle in the novel, and Shelley never mentioned visiting the castle in her accounts of the Rhine trip.

8. Many people believed Percy Shelley was the true author of Frankenstein.

Frankenstein was initially published anonymously. The book was dedicated to William Godwin, Mary’s father, and Percy Shelley wrote the preface. Because of these ties, many people mistakenly believed Percy Shelley was the author. This misconception persisted even after the book was republished under Mary’s name. In fact, some continue to argue that Percy was the true author—but while he edited Frankenstein and encouraged Mary to develop the story into a full novel, it’s clear that Mary was the actual writer.

9. Frankenstein initially faced harsh criticism.

When Frankenstein was released in 1818, it was met with heavy criticism. “What a collection of horrendous and repulsive absurdities this work presents,” wrote John Croker of the Quarterly Review. However, Gothic novels were incredibly popular at the time, and Frankenstein quickly attracted readers. By 1823, a play titled Presumption; or The Fate of Frankenstein helped solidify the story’s fame. In 1831, a new edition of the book was published, this time under Mary’s name.

10. Frankenstein is often considered the first science fiction novel.

With Frankenstein, Shelley created the first major science fiction novel, as well as the concept of the “mad scientist” and helped lay the groundwork for what would become the horror fiction genre. The book’s influence on popular culture is so profound that the term Frankenstein has come to represent something unnatural and monstrous.

Mary continued to explore science fiction with works like her short story Roger Dodsworth: The Reanimated Englishman, which tells the tale of a man who is thawed from ice, and her novel The Last Man, a post-apocalyptic story of a lone survivor in a world ravaged by plague, both from the same year.

11. Thomas Edison brought Frankenstein to the screen.

In 1910, Thomas Edison’s studio created a one-reel, 15-minute adaptation of Frankenstein, making it one of the earliest horror films. The film was thought to be lost until it was rediscovered in the 1980s. Today, you can find it on YouTube and watch it for yourself.