Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

"Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated..." Mary Shelley did not really know what to write after the famous agreement at Byron's villa. Each of the members of the company - Percy Bishy Shelley, Lord Byron, Mary herself, doctor Polidori, and Byron's young mistress - was to write a ghost story, but only two of them took care to fullfill the promise. Doctor Polidori inspired by the question of blood as an ultimate liquid created "The Vampire", while Mary Shelley, after fruitless musing, remember the issue of returning to life through galvanism. Her idea gave the world one of the most famous horror plots in the history of literature - a desparete science student creates an artificial man from the flesh of an executed criminal. The student, Frankenstein, is obsessed with the idea of eternal life - he can't bear the idea of losing his loved ones. However, despite his attempts to create a proper man, the creature turns out to be a monster. His unfulfilled hopes and anger become a threat to Frankenstein's life. Shelly's unusually horryfiing novel created a new movement in literature - sci-fi monster stories - and Frankenstein's creation became one of the most recognizable monsters in the world.