#6: Mary Shelley Beyond the Monster
The square head, neck bolts, and heavy boots familiar from old movies belong to Hollywood, not to Mary Shelley’s original creation. Frankenstein never even gives the creature a personal name, and Frankenstein is the scientist, Victor, rather than the being he assembles. Those familiar misunderstandings have helped reduce an extraordinary novel to a collection of horror images. Published in 1818, Frankenstein grew from a period fascinated by experiments involving electricity, anatomy, and the possibility that life itself might have a discoverable physical force.
