In June 1816, in a holiday villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, in one of the worst summers in human history, an 18-year-old girl, Mary Godwin, sat down to write what would become the world’s most famous horror story. The novel, Frankenstein, would be published 18 months later, in January 1818. Mary Godwin and her lover, the poet Shelley, were staying as guests of the poet Robert Byron.
Ghost Stories
A volcanic eruption in what is now Indonesia had catastrophically affected the world’s weather. The tourists spent their days around the fire in the villa, reading stories of the supernatural. One day, Byron suggested that each person should write a ghost story. For days, Mary tried desperately to think of an idea. Then, on the night of June the 16th, she had a nightmare. The next morning, she famously said: “I’ve found it! What will terrify me will terrify others.”
Scientific Experiment
In Godwin’s story, Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist, creates a horrific but intelligent monster from human parts in an unorthodox scientific experiment. The monster escapes and starts to kill the scientist’s friends and relatives. The story ends at the North Pole with the death of Frankenstein and his creation. When the book appeared in January 1818, reviews were mixed, but the public was fascinated. The monster has no name, but the public quickly started to call it by its creator’s name, Frankenstein. The book has never been out of print in two hundred years, and is now considered a classic of the 19th century.
A Fictional Icon
Over the years, since its publication, Frankenstein’s protagonist has become part of our global culture. Numerous editions and theatrical representations helped to extend its popularity in the 19th century. But it was the cinema that guaranteed Frankenstein’s place in our collective memory, with more than fifty films so far based on the story. Boris Karloff from the 1930s will always be the classic screen Frankenstein, but those giants of horror films, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, starred in a number of box office hits15 in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Frankenstein has recently received the Hollywood popular culture seal of approval: Javier Bardem will star as the monster in 2019 in Bride of Frankenstein, in the new Universal Studios franchise of gods and monsters, Dark Universe.
A Villa of Ideas
Something else was born two hundred years ago in that villa on Lake Geneva. Byron had invited his doctor, John William Polidori, to spend the summer with him. The poet was working on a story that he had heard about during his travels in the Balkans. Polidori took the idea and started writing a novel. Three years later, he published his work. It was called The Vampyre.
