Frankenstein was written by
Mary Shelly in 1818 . The fact that it was a woman who wrote this story is not surprising in the 21st century, but at that time it was not very common for women to publish books.
Do you want to know why she wrote it? Her husband was a poet and they had travelled to
Switzerland to spend their holidays together with another English poet called
Byron. The weather was awfully cold, it snowed a lot and there were frequent storms. It was impossible to go hiking and, you know, it was the early nineteenth century: no TV, no internet, no phones, no radio, no CD players; they had to find some amusement. Byron came up with this idea: a scary story contest. That's how
Dr Frankenstein' creature was born.
Lots of films based on
Mary Shelly's story have been made. I've seen these ones:
1931 Boris Karloff as the creature (Don't think I was alive in 1931!)
1994 Robert De Niro as the monster
A comedy,
Young Frankenstein directed by Mel Brooks, 1974
What do you think? What's the most frightening story you have ever read or seen?
Images by: TimmyGUNZ and Neato Coolville on flickr
