Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
There are two creatures of horror that are known to everyone; Frankenstein and Dracula, however neither of the two still have much similarities to their original creations.
There are two creatures of horror that are known to everyone; Frankenstein and Dracula, however neither of the two still have much similarities to their original creations.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was the mistress of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelly. In 1816 she stayed in a cottage on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland together with Shelly and their friend Lord Byron. As a storm raged outside the cottage, they encouraged each other to write a ghost story. Shelly and Lord Byron were so impressed by Mary’s story that she turned it into a full length novel. She got the inspiration for the story of Frankenstein in 1814 after she and Percy Shelly attended one of the lectures on atmospheric electricity by scientist Andrew Crosse in London.
More than 20 years after Mary had published her novel Crosse announced that he had created life in his laboratory. In 1837 he decided an attempt to make crystals of natural glass. He made the glass out of ground flint and potassium carbonate and dissolved this in sulphuric acid. Next he let the mixture drip through a piece of porous iron oxide from Mount Vesuvius which was electrified by a battery. After two weeks small white nipples began to grow out of the stone which changed into hairy legs. When Crosse became aware that the legs were moving he examined them through a microscope and discovered that the legs were small bugs. Crosse thought that might be insect eggs in the stone and therefore he sealed his carefully sterilised mixture into an airtight container and passed electricity through it. A few months later there were new bugs. Crosse’s paper on his discovery was received as blasphemy by the Clergymen. Crosse was gravely disappointed and withdrew himself as a scientist. The rest of this life in lived a hermit like existence until his death in 1855.
Liked it
Very interesting background. I have these two books Dracula and Frankenstein in one paperback and enjoyed reading it back in college. It’s amazing back in the time of Shelley for a woman to write a science fiction novel. She must be really inspired.
Very nice, creepy and very interesting.
You forgot to mention the Third Horror Creature, known to everyone:
Yours Truly,
the One & Only!
Check your title, her name is “Mary” not “Marry”…
That would be Mary Shelley…
Interesting background on the story though, I had heard some of it but not all…
Creepy and fascinating…
It’s a pity Andrew Crosse wasn’t around in this century he’d be famous. Great Article.
I also enjoyed reading these two novels in high school: Dracula and Frankenstein.
These are very good classics to read.
I read your article and looked up Andrew Crosse as well since I was puzzled about something.The misspelled Mary has been said but the dates don’t match after reading about Andrew.If Andrew Crosse died on July 6th,1855,how could he possibly create life in 1937?
This sort of seems like it should be two separate articles – the first on Frankenstein and Dracula (I couldn’t help but notice that you mentioned Dracula in the lead paragraph but then never followed up on it); and the second article about Andrew Crosse and his experiments with electricity. Just an idea. Interesting, but a little hard to follow – plus there are some date problems as mentioned before by Payge.
The other friend in the cottage was Lord Byron.
Never heard of the creation of life. Thank you for the riveting story. Enjoyed it.
Thanks Payge Of course that must be 1837, a slip of the finger. They move very fast and I am half blind. Yes Andrew Crosse is a fasinating person.
One of my favorite books but if I ever knew the background, I had forgotten it. it’s a wonderful story.
Great detective work there Agriculi! Nice to see some background info on the characters and novelists we all know and love.
=]