15,697
edits
Changes
m
Admin moved page What is the history behind Frankenstein? to What is the history behind Frankenstein
====Mary Shelly- brilliance and tragedy====
[[File: Frankenstein 2.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Portrait of Mary Shelley]]
The creator of one of the greatest horror stories of all time was an English lady. Mary Godwin (1797-1851), was the daughter of the great feminist author Mary Wollenscroft and the political philosopher William Goodwin. When she was 16 she began an affair with the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelly. Her father disapproved of the affair and the young lovers eloped to France. While visiting Lord Byron near Lake Geneva, Mary, conceived of the idea for her most famous creation. The idea for the story came to her as she and some friends were having a competition, as to who could write the scariest ghost story. She won the competition and began to turn her idea into, first a short story and then a novel.
While visiting Lord Byron near Lake Geneva, Mary, conceived of the idea for her most famous creation. The idea for the story came to her as she and some friends were having a competition, as to who could write the scariest ghost story. She won the competition and began to turn her idea into, first a short story and then a novel. Mary developed the idea when she was only 18 years old.Her future husband, Shelley, is believed to have given her advice on the plot and the novel’s development. The novel, <i>Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus </i> was published in 1818 to great acclaim. Mary married Shelly in 1816. After several years of marriage , her husband drowned, which left her devastated. She lived her remaining years, caring for her son with the great poet and continued to write novels. Her later works were not well received at the time, but in recent decades there has been a reappraisal of her later novels such as <i>The Last Man</i>. Mary continued to mourn her husband until her death and never remarried.
====The Story====
====The occult====
<dh-ad/>
The author was writing during the Romantic period which was fascinated by the occult and magic. Supernatural and occult stories from German were especially popular.<ref> Conger, Syndy McMillen. "A German Ancestor for Mary Shelley's Monster: Kahlert, Schiller, and the Buried Treasure of" Northanger Abbey"." Philological Quarterly 59, no. 2 (1980), p. 216</ref> Mary Shelly was very familiar with stories about Medieval alchemists.
Alchemy was considered to be a branch of natural philosophy, the forerunner of modern science before the modern era. Alchemists were a combination of magicians and scientists. They were often believed to be engaged not in science, which was not well-defined in the Middle Ages, but in Black Magic. There were undoubtedly some aspects of alchemy that were related to myth, magic and the spiritual world. They carried out experiments that attempted to turn base metals into gold. Some alchemists tried to find magic elixirs that made people eternally youthful or even immortal.<ref> Buchen, Irving H. "Frankenstein and the Alchemy of Creation and Evolution." The Wordsworth Circle 8, no. 2 (1977): 103-112 </ref>
Many of them were charlatans and impostors. Yet some were also engaged in empirical experiments and they helped to develop the basics of modern laboratory practices. One famous alchemist who was also a pioneer in medicine was the German, known as Paracelsus. Alchemists were often regarded with suspicion by the Church and society at large. However, they were often protected by powerful lords, who believed that they had special powers and knowledge .<ref>Buchen, p. 111</ref> Figures, who practiced the occult, were possibly the model for the character of Victor Frankenstein. Indeed, in the novel, the young Baron, in his youth read some of the major alchemists’ treatises such as Albertus Magnus.
==== Giovanni Aldini====
<div class="portal" style='float:right; width:35%'>
====Related Articles====
{{#dpl:category=British History|ordermethod=firstedit|order=descending|count=9}}
</div>
[[File: Frankenstein 4.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The ruins of Castle Frankenstein, today]]
Mary Shelley was a very learned woman and she was very aware of the intellectual trends of the time. Following the Enlightenment, there were a remarkable number of scientific discoveries in areas as diverse as chemistry and biology. The study of electricity was something that was emerging at this time. It fascinated many, who believed that it could transform not only society but actually humanity. One of the most remarkable claims for electricity was that it could reanimate the dead.
====Further Reading====
Carlson, Julie A. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080188618X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=080188618X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=0fd37cdff6849abab3c7c6ef2ff61265 England's First Family of Writers: Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, Mary Shelley]</i>. (JHU Press, 2007.)
Fisch, Audrey, Anne K. Mellor, and Esther H. Schor, eds. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195077407/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0195077407&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=9b579b98055cde0b520e5ab7d346cd7b The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond Frankenstein]</i>. (Oxford University Press, 1993.){{Mediawiki:AmNative}}
====References====
<references/>
[[Category:Wikis]] [[Category:British History]] [[Category:19th Century History]]
