Since October is finally here (except finally is probably the wrong word to use in the situation, given that 2020 has flown by in the blink of an eye!) I thought it might be fun to blast through some spooky titles in recognition of the time of year. I've uploaded my Halloween list here if you want to read along with me.
I have chosen this title for numerous reasons, perhaps most notably that it's on my reading list at uni this semester. I know, I know, but you know what they say: work smarter, not harder. ✌
More seriously, Mary Shelley is one of my favourite authors simply because of the narrative that surrounds her. Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women. This feminist inclination was woven into the very bones of our Mary Shelley, who set out to write not only under her own name but in a genre that would've been seen as ghastly to be undertaken by a woman of that time.
She wrote Frankenstein - originally called The Modern Prometheus - whilst visiting the Villa Diodati, a mansion near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, rented in the summer of 1816 by Lord Byron and John Polidori. At just 18, she wrote what could be considered a trailblazing text on behalf of women and girls everywhere. A fascinating event took place during that summer that, in my opinion, had enormous influence over the group's emotional state during their stay at the Villa Diodati. In April 1815, Mount Tamboro of Indonesian origin erupted, sending clouds of volcanic ash skyward and into the upper atmosphere. This obscuring of the sun was global, sending the world into darkness for many months. Rainfall increased, and temperatures fell; during the Regency or late Georgian period, this must surely have felt like an impending apocalypse! With no global hourly - or even daily - updates to reassure the party that all was well, they must initially have been very frightened.
During their climatic internment at the villa, Lord Byron suggested they hold a writing competition. The genre? Spooky stories, of course! The rest, as they say, is history. Shelley finished the book in the summer of 1817 and published it in 1818-- anonymously. As a consequence, the public assumed the book was the work of her lover, Percy B. Shelley. It wasn't until the second edition, published in Paris in 1821, that she was recognised as the author of this fantastic novel.
Some of my favourite quotations from the book:
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
― Frankenstein
As is often the case with newly-published authors, and certainly is true of Shelley, I believe a great many of her most powerful words spring authentically from her own experiences. Fearless she is, without a doubt, to write such graphic, vivid descriptions within a genre that is off-limits to women, then break that glass ceiling anyway.
“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”
― Frankenstein
By the time Mary wrote Frankenstein, she had been renounced by her father, following Mary's choice to pursue a relationship with Percy, an already married man with a child and another on the way. Soon after, Percy's father cut off his son's stipend, leading to many months of financial uncertainty, legal trouble, and the cold, harsh reality of living in poverty. Three of Mary's children would die shortly after their birth, and only one of her children survived: Percy Florence Shelley. Anguish, indeed.
“There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape. If I am not satisfied in the one, I will indulge the other.”
― Frankenstein
I wonder what woman didn't feel like this in 19th century England, or anywhere on earth, for that matter.
What an inspiration she is.
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