Author’s introduction: Frankenstein
1. Mary Shelley reveals herself as the author of Frankenstein and is going to tell us how and why
she came up with this novel.
2. As a child, she dreamt, imagined and wrote stories. Dearest pleasure was to dream.
3. She spent a lot of time in the country in Scotland and wrote stories while surrounded by nature,
ex. under a tree. She did not like to write about reality or herself but instead, fiction.
4. Mary’s husband, Percy, pushed her to write. But, she did not want to and instead, was busy
having a family, reading and “cultivating her mind.”
5. The summer of 1816 was spent in Geneva, Switzerland. Mary and Percy lived near Lord Byron,
who frequently shared his poems on nature and heaven with them.
6. It was rainy and Mary, Percy and Lord Byron stayed indoors and read German ghost stories.
7. Mary vaguely shared the ghost stories created by Percy, Lord Byron and Polidori.
8. She kept thinking about what her ghost story would be about. Mary wanted it to “awaken
thrilling horror.” But, she could not come up with something.
9. Mary talks about invention and how things begin and are created.
10. Mary listens to conversations about “principle of life” between Percy and Lord Byron. They talk
about Darwin and she wonders whether a “corpse would be reanimated.” Mary is wondering if
man can bring something dead back to life.
11. Mary cannot sleep because her imagination is running wild. She is beginning to put the
characters to her story together. She talks of a man who brings to life a huge creature that he
worked on but then, after creating it, fears its very existence and wishes he did not create life.
12. Her dream haunted her and she awoke, glad it was only her imagination.
13. Mary kept thinking of how to write a story that would haunt her readers. Then, she realized her
own ghastly dream she imagined was the answer. She began to write Frankenstein.
14. Mary wanted to write a short story but with her husband’s encouragement, she developed the
story even further and thanks him for it. She gives credit to her husband.
15. Mary confesses this is her novel and wants the world to read it. But, admits it was not produced
without the help of her companion, Percy, who she will never see again because he died.
16. She leaves the novel untouched except for some style changes within it.
Questions:
1. What does the “Introduction to Frankenstein” suggest about how writers get ideas?
2. What does this selection reveal to you about the relationship between Mary Shelley and
her husband?
3. What kinds of scientific experimentation today are comparable to Darwin’s in the 18th
century? Explain.