The recounted story serves as the frame for Frankenstein's narrative.

Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion he sees in Walton the same obsession that has destroyed him and recounts a story of his life's miseries to Walton as a warning. Frankenstein has been in pursuit of the gigantic man observed by Walton's crew. A few hours later, the crew rescues a nearly frozen and emaciated man named Victor Frankenstein. During the voyage, the crew spots a dog sled driven by a gigantic figure.

Robert Walton is a failed writer who sets out to explore the North Pole in hopes of expanding scientific knowledge. The story takes place in the eighteenth century (the letters are dated as '17-'). It documents a fictional correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville. Summary Captain Walton introductory narrative įrankenstein is a frame story written in epistolary form. Since the publication of the novel, the name 'Frankenstein' has often been used, erroneously, to refer to the monster, rather than to his creator/father. The novel has had a considerable influence on literature and on popular culture it has spawned a complete genre of horror stories, films, and plays. In contrast to previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science fiction, Aldiss states, the central character 'makes a deliberate decision' and 'turns to modern experiments in the laboratory' to achieve fantastic results. Though Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement, Brian Aldiss has argued for regarding it as the first true science-fiction story. Īfter thinking for days, Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein after imagining a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made. In 1816, Mary, Percy, and Lord Byron had a competition to see who could write the best horror story. Galvanism and occult ideas were topics of conversation for her companions, particularly for her lover and future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. She then journeyed to the region of Geneva, Switzerland, where much of the story takes place. Shelley travelled through Europe in 1815, moving along the river Rhine in Germany, and stopping in Gernsheim, 17 kilometres (11 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where, two centuries before, an alchemist had engaged in experiments. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley.

Frankenstein annotations letter 1