FRANKENSTEIN - MARY SHELLEY (1818): In 1816, Shelley spent a summer with Lord Byron. Sitting around a log fire Byron proposed that they each write a ghost story. Unable to sleep, Shelley got to it: “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together, she recalled. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world. She began writing what she assumed would be a short story, but became her first novel, Frankenstein regarded as one of the first genuine science fiction novels it still speaks to – and spooks - readers nearly 200 years on. More here: shortlist/entertainment/books/the-30-best-debut-novels#item-2
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 11:45:18 +0000
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