The Story Behind & Around Frankenstein

You are probably aware of some of the backstory behind the writing of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I was, but I wasn't aware of all of it. What a mess it was.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was the only child of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, who died eleven days after giving birth. Mary didn't have any formal education, but was tutored by her father, who had an extensive library.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was bullied in school, was viewed as being effeminate, and didn't have very many friends. So he read a lot. Perhaps through his reading, he came up with ideas or views that were generally thought to be heretical or dissident. After being made aware of a pamphlet he wrote - The Necessity of Atheism - Oxford University expelled him, which led to a falling out with his father. Eventually, he married a woman named Harriet Westbrook, but he also delved further into radical politics and published poems about atheism, vegetarianism, and free love. He also traveled around Europe giving talks on religion and politics.

In time, he made his way to the home of William Godwin, one of his intellectual heroes. There, he not only found inspiration but he also found Godwin's 16 year-old daughter, Mary. Against her father's wishes, Percy and Mary had a relationship. Although they were both outspoken advocates of free love, Mary wasn't really interested in pursuing any other lovers. That wasn't the case with Percy, who had flings with several other women, this despite Mary's objections.

Lord George Gordon Byron was born with a clubfoot, but that didn't keep him from becoming a well-known poet. Lord Byron wrote poems and spoke eloquently at the House of Lords, but he also piled up debt and had numerous affairs with both men and women. In 1816, Byron decided to leave England temporarily, hoping that the rumors of his lifestyle would die down, and that some of his debts would be forgiven while he was gone. He didn't realize that he would not be allowed to return.

Claire Clairmont was the stepsister and friend of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. The 18 year-old Claire became involved with Percy while Mary was pregnant with his child. Under the pretense of seeking advice on becoming a poet, Claire wrote letters to Percy almost daily, and eventually became his lover. When Byron left England in 1816, Claire followed, bringing Percy and Mary with her. Claire was pregnant with Byron's child at the time.

1816 was known as the Year Without a Summer, largely because of massive volcanic activity in Asia, although the earth had already been in a period of global cooling. The weather in Europe was cool and rainy, and the skies were dark.

One night, Mary, Percy, Byron, and Byron's physician, John Polidori, were telling ghost stories. Byron challenged them to each write a scary story. The story that Mary came up with was about a doctor who creates a monster by stealing body parts from morgues. It was a short story, that vaguely explained the process in which the body parts were fused together and animated. Percy encouraged her to develop the story further, and she finished writing Frankenstein the following year.

The first edition was published anonymously in 1818, with a foreword by Percy. Released in 1823, the second edition was credited to Mary Shelley. In 1831, Shelley heavily revised the story, and another edition was published. That's the one that most of us are familiar with. Although it was not very popular with the book critics, the public loved it, and it went on to become a classic.

Claire had a daughter by Byron, a daughter that she left him to raise. He put the girl in a convent, where she died of typhus as the age of five. Mary married Percy after his first wife died. They had four children, but all but one died in childhood. Percy died when his boat capsized during a storm in 1822, six years after their summer of telling ghost stories. Two years after that, Byron died of a fever in Greece while fighting for Greek independence from the Turks.