The name Frankenstein is almost never linked to the actual book anymore. It is fairly certain the author, Mary Shelley, never intended for the book to become as famous as it is. She does not receive much credit for creating these characters since people do not know about her.
Mary Godwin was born on August 30, 1797 in London, England to philosopher William Godwin and famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Four weeks after her birth, her mother passed away and her father remarried when she turned four. Godwin was never fond of her stepmother; the feeling was mutual. Her stepmother never saw a need to send Shelley to school. Despite this, she was very intelligent. She was exposed to books throughout her childhood and often confided in them. She developed a passion for writing early in her life and wrote for a very limited audience.
In June of 1812, Godwin moved to Scotland. Occasionally, she would visit her home country; this is how she met Percy Bysshe Shelley. Their relationship quickly blossomed despite Shelley still being married to his first wife. Right after their divorce, Godwin and Shelley married and Mary Godwin became Mary Shelley. The two newlyweds lived in France for a while before moving back to England, where they lived in hiding to avoid Percy’s angry first wife. In 1815, Shelley gave birth to her first daughter; she died a month later. Not too long after, their second child, William, was born.
In the summer of 1916, the couple decided to tour Europe. Shelley’s stepsister, Claire, tagged along. The trio rented a house in Switzerland near another writer. Lord Byron, a British writer, suggested the group write and compare ghost stories while the summer was rainy and dull. Shelley started on Frankenstein, which without the encouragement of her husband, would’ve only been a few pages long. Once the story was finished, Byron allegedly ran “screaming in horror” from the room while reading it. It was deemed the best story of the group and was published...