The Literature Book

120

WHO SHALL CONCEIVE

THE HORRORS OF MY

SECRET TOIL

FRANKENSTEIN (1818), MARY SHELLEY

G

othic fiction established

its main themes in the late

18th century, years before

the publication of Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein. Works such as

Horace Walpole’s The Castle of

Otranto, Ann Radcliffe’s The

Mysteries of Udolpho, and E. T. A.

Hoffmann’s Nachtstücke, set out

the key elements of the genre. In

these books, exiles roam sublime

foreign landscapes, or are trapped

in ruined castles in nightmarish

tales of abuse, tyranny, and murder.

At the heart of early gothic

fiction was a combination of

Romantic preoccupations with the

power of the mind, the limits of the

imagination, and contemporary

social questions, coupled with

gothic tropes of evil aristocratic

villains, gory deaths, and gloomy

medieval settings. This mixture

was frequently embodied in

beings such as vampires, ghosts,

monsters, and terrifying and

mysterious female figures.

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

expanded on these elements,

linking them to wider philosophical

debates, and forever changing the

gothic genre in the process. The

inspiration for the novel came from

conversations she had with, among

others, the English Romantic poets

Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord

Byron. One evening, the group told

stories around the fire, as a storm

raged outside. Byron suggested

they devise ghost stories, and Mary

Shelley’s imagination was stirred.

An unsettling age

Although the stormy origins of

Frankenstein are perhaps fitting,

the novel is much more than a

simple tale of terror. One of

Shelley’s most significant

contributions to the gothic genre is

her ability to expand on the stock

themes of persecution, threat, and

monstrous hauntings into a more

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Early gothic

BEFORE

1764 The Castle of Otranto by

English writer Horace Walpole

is published. It is later hailed

as the origin of gothic fiction.

1794 , English author Ann

Radcliffe publishes her novel

The Mysteries of Udolpho,

introducing readers to the

dark, romanticized, and

brooding gothic “hero.”

1796 Inspired by Radcliffe’s

novels and German horror

stories, Englishman Matthew

Lewis writes The Monk, one of

the most sensationalist gothic

novels of the period.

1817 E. T. A. Hoffmann, from

Prussia, writes a collection

of short stories, Nachtstücke,

that includes his now famous

tale “The Sandman,” which

blends Romantic philosophy

with gothic themes of horror

and irrationality.

A flash of lightning

illuminated the object ... it was

the wretch, the filthy daemon,

to whom I had given life.

Frankenstein

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