Frankenstein was the Doctor

It was supposed to be a chill summer in a Lake Geneva villa with some good pals and good vibes. But it rained all the time putting everyone on lockdown, 19th century style, with no Netflix or IG to fill the void. Out of boredom or pure deviousness, Lord Byron came up with a simple writing prompt that changed the world: let’s write ghost stories, y’all!
One fever dream later, Percy Shelley’s wife invented science fiction by penning—literally with a pen—Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Here are some fun Frankenfacts.
Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster. Keep this piece of knowledge in your head. It will eventually pop up as a question in pub trivia. Also, his first name was Victor.
Mary Shelley was 18 when she wrote Frankenstein. It was published when she was 20 and her name wasn’t on it. Her husband wrote the intro, so everyone thought he wrote it. It was finally published in her name in 1823.
Her mom was a feminist. An early advocate of women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft laid down the foundation for feminist theory in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Sadly, she died soon after Mary’s birth.
The Frankenstein Castle is a real place in Germany. Once home to a creepy alchemist named Johann Konrad Dippel, it’s likely the castle and the mad scientist inspired Mary’s hit book.
She was the original goth girl. When Percy Shelley died, she had his heart cut out of him, wrapped in velvet and placed in a box. She took it everywhere until she herself died. Percy and his heart were reunited in 1889 when it was buried in the family plot in St. Peter’s Church in Bournemouth, UK.