Though suffering economic hardship from financial mismanagement William was able to give both girls a rich, though unusual, education. 'Portrait of Mary Shelley' by Richerd Rathwell, 1840 At a mere eleven days old her mother died leaving Mary, and her half-sister Fanny Imlay, to be raised by her father. Despite her father’s fame and social standing, however, Mary’s life was one marked by struggle and loss. Mary was born in 1797 to the very liberal pairing of the political philosopher William Godwin and the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Yet when we study Shelley’s life and travels it is hardly surprising that this young woman dreamed up such a riveting and heart wrenching story during a dark and rainy summer by Lake Geneva. It is hard to imagine that this great novel was conceived by an eighteen year old. Yet ‘Frankenstein’ remains not only a pillar of the horror genre but one of the earliest works of science fiction and a fantastic reflection on the suffering of existence. So popular is the image of the shambling monster with metal bolts in his neck that it has all but broken away from its original incarnation in Mary Shelley’s seminal work. His gruesome visage has appeared in numerous popular representations and is a Halloween mainstay. Frankenstein’s monster stands alongside the sharp toothed Dracula as one of literature’s most iconic figures.
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