Frankenstein

• Victor Frankenstein – Protagonist and narrator of most of the story. Creates the monster.
• The Creature (Frankenstein's monster) – The creature created by Victor Frankenstein.
• Captain Robert Walton – Captain of the boat which picked up Victor. On his journey to sail to the North Pole, he writes numerous letters detailing the expedition and his subsequent encounters with Victor and the Creature to Mrs. Margaret Saville.
• Margaret Saville – Resident of England. Sister of Robert Walton. Addressee of letters written by him.
• Beaufort – A merchant. Caroline Beaufort's father. One of the most intimate friends of Victor's father.
• Caroline Beaufort – Beaufort's daughter, Victor's mother.
• Alphonse Frankenstein - Victor's father, from a wealthy family and respected by all who know him.
• Elizabeth Lavenza – Victor's fiancée and adopted sister, sometimes referred to as his cousin.
• Ernest Frankenstein – Victor's brother. Seven years younger than Victor. He is left alone by the Creature, and ultimately becomes the only surviving member of his family as of the story's close.
• William Frankenstein – Victor's youngest brother.
• Henry Clerval – Victor's best friend, both in childhood and adulthood. The son of a merchant of Geneva.
• Justine Moritz – Daughter of Madame Moritz. Moved in with the Frankenstein family at age of 12, and hanged for the murder of William.
• M. Krempe – A professor of natural philosophy at the University of Ingolstadt. An uncouth man, but deeply imbued in the secrets of his science. Influenced Victor.
• M. Waldman – A professor, at Ingolstadt. Influenced Victor and restored his interest in science.
• De Lacey – A blind old man descended from a "good family" in France. His family was observed by the monster, and unbeknownst to them, taught him to speak and read.
• Agatha De Lacey – Daughter of De Lacey. Often described as "gentle."
• Felix De Lacey – Son of De Lacey. His family lost its fortune and was exiled after he helped a Turkish merchant who had been wrongly convicted of a crime.
• Safie – Daughter of the Turkish merchant and a Christian Arab. Felix's girlfriend.
• Mr. Kirwin – A magistrate who presides over Victor's murder charge.
• Daniel Nugent – A witness against Victor in his murder charge.

Mary Shelley by Richard Rothwell (1840–41)

Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, died from infection shortly after giving birth to her. Shelley grew close to her father, William Godwin, having never known her mother. Godwin hired a nurse, who briefly cared for her and her half sister, before marrying second wife Mary Jane Clairmont, who did not like the close bond between Shelley and her father. The resulting friction caused Godwin to favour his other children.

Shelley's father was a famous author of the time, and her education was of great importance to him, although it was not formal. Shelley grew up surrounded by her father's friends, writers, and persons of political importance, who often gathered at the family home. This inspired her authorship at an early age. Shelley met Percy Bysshe Shelley, who later became her husband, at the age of sixteen while he was visiting her father. Godwin did not approve of the relationship between his daughter and an older, married but separated man, so they fled to France along with her stepsister, Claire Clairmont. Shelley gave birth to and lost their first child on 22 February 1815, when she gave birth two months prematurely. The baby died two weeks later. Percy left with Mary's stepsister Claire for an affair.[11] Over eight years, she endured a similar pattern of pregnancy and loss, one hemorrhage occurring until Percy placed her upon ice to cease the bleeding.[12]

Mary and Percy's trip with Claire to visit Claire's lover, Lord Byron, in Geneva during the summer of 1816 began the friendship between the two couples, in which Byron suggested that they have a competition to write the best ghost story to pass time stuck indoors. Historians suggest that an affair occurred too, even that the father of one of Shelley's children may have been Byron.[12] Mary was eighteen years old when she won the contest with her creation of Frankenstein.[13][14]

Shelley was heavily influenced by both of her parents' works. Her father was famous for Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and her mother famous for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Her father's novels also influenced her writing of Frankenstein. These novels included Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, St. Leon, and Fleetwood. All of these books were set in Switzerland, similar to the setting in Frankenstein. Some major themes of social affections and the renewal of life that appear in Shelley's novel stem from these works she had in her possession. Other literary influences that appear in Frankenstein are Pygmalion et Galatée by Mme de Genlis and Ovid, with the use of individuals identifying the problems with society.[15] Ovid also inspires the use of Prometheus in Shelley's title.[16]

The influence of John Milton's Paradise Lost and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner are clearly evident in the novel. In The Frankenstein of the French Revolution, author Julia Douthwaite posits that Shelley likely acquired some ideas for Frankenstein's character from Humphry Davy's book Elements of Chemical Philosophy, in which he had written that "science has ... bestowed upon man powers which may be called creative; which have enabled him to change and modify the beings around him ...". References to the French Revolution run through the novel; a possible source may lie in François-Félix Nogaret's Le Miroir des événemens actuels, ou la Belle au plus offrant (1790), a political parable about scientific progress featuring an inventor named Frankésteïn, who creates a life-sized automaton.[17]

Both Frankenstein and the monster quote passages from Percy Shelley's 1816 poem, "Mutability", and its theme of the role of the subconscious is discussed in prose. Percy Shelley's name never appeared as the author of the poem, although the novel credits other quoted poets by name. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798) is associated with the theme of guilt and William Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" (1798) with that of innocence.

Many writers and historians have attempted to associate several then popular natural philosophers (now called physical scientists) with Shelley's work because of several notable similarities. Two of the most noted natural philosophers among Shelley's contemporaries were Giovanni Aldini, who made many public attempts at human reanimation through bio-electric Galvanism in London,[18] and Johann Konrad Dippel, who was supposed to have developed chemical means to extend the life span of humans. While Shelley was aware of both of these men and their activities, she makes no mention of or reference to them or their experiments in any of her published or released notes.

Ideas about life and death discussed by Percy and Byron were of great interest to scientists of that time. They discussed ideas from Erasmus Darwin and the experiments of Luigi Galvani. Mary joined these conversations and the ideas of Darwin and Galvani were both present in her novel.

Shelley's personal experiences also influenced the themes within Frankenstein. The themes of loss, guilt, and the consequences of defying nature present in the novel all developed from Mary Shelley's own life. The loss of her mother, the relationship with her father, and the death of her first child are thought to have inspired the monster and his separation from parental guidance. In a 1965 issue of The Journal of Religion and Health a psychologist proposed that the theme of guilt stemmed from her not feeling good enough for Percy because of the loss of their child.[14]

Draft of Frankenstein ("It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld my man completed ...")

How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?

— Mary Shelley[19]

During the rainy summer of 1816, the "Year Without a Summer", the world was locked in a long, cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815.[20][21] Mary Shelley, aged 18, and her lover (and future husband), Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn.

Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company amused themselves by reading German ghost stories translated into French from the book Fantasmagoriana.[22] Byron proposed that they "each write a ghost story."[23] Unable to think of a story, Mary Shelley became anxious. She recalled being asked "Have you thought of a story?" each morning, and every time being "forced to reply with a mortifying negative."[24] During one evening in the middle of summer, the discussions turned to the nature of the principle of life. "Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated," Mary noted, "galvanism had given token of such things".[25] It was after midnight before they retired and, unable to sleep, she became possessed by her imagination as she beheld the "grim terrors" of her "waking dream".[6]

I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.[26]

In September 2011, astronomer Donald Olson, after a visit to the Lake Geneva villa the previous year and inspecting data about the motion of the moon and stars, concluded that her "waking dream" took place between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on 16 June 1816, several days after the initial idea by Lord Byron that they each write a ghost story.[27]

Mary Shelley began writing what she assumed would be a short story, but with Percy Shelley's encouragement, she expanded the tale into a full-fledged novel.[28] She later described that summer in Switzerland as the moment "when I first stepped out from childhood into life."[29] Shelley wrote the first four chapters in the weeks following the suicide of her half-sister Fanny.[30] This was one of many personal tragedies that impacted Shelley's work. Shelley's first child died in infancy, and when she began composing Frankenstein in 1816, she was likely nursing her second child, who was also dead by the time of Frankenstein's publication.[31] Shelley wrote much of the book while residing in a lodging house in the centre of Bath in 1816.[32]

Byron managed to write just a fragment based on the vampire legends he heard while travelling the Balkans, and from this John Polidori created The Vampyre (1819), the progenitor of the romantic vampire literary genre. Thus two seminal horror tales originated from the conclave.

The group talked about Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment ideas as well. Mary Shelley believed the Enlightenment idea that society could progress and grow if political leaders used their powers responsibly; however, she also believed the Romantic ideal that misused power could destroy society.[33]

Shelley's manuscripts for the first three-volume edition in 1818 (written 1816–1817), as well as the fair copy for her publisher, are now housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The Bodleian acquired the papers in 2004, and they belong now to the Abinger Collection.[34][35] In 2008, the Bodleian published a new edition of Frankenstein, edited by Charles E. Robinson, that contains comparisons of Mary Shelley's original text with Percy Shelley's additions and interventions alongside.[36]

Shelley completed her writing in April/May 1817, and Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published on 1 January 1818[59] by the small London publishing house Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones.[60][61] It was issued anonymously, with a preface written for Mary by Percy Bysshe Shelley and with a dedication to philosopher William Godwin, her father. It was published in an edition of just 500 copies in three volumes, the standard "triple-decker" format for 19th-century first editions.

A variety of different editions

A French translation (Frankenstein: ou le Prométhée Moderne, translated by Jules Saladin) appeared as early as 1821. The second English edition of Frankenstein was published on 11 August 1823 in two volumes (by G. and W. B. Whittaker) following the success of the stage play Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein by Richard Brinsley Peake.[62] This edition credited Mary Shelley as the book's author on its title page.

On 31 October 1831, the first "popular" edition in one volume appeared, published by Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley.[63] This edition was heavily revised by Mary Shelley, partially to make the story less radical. It included a lengthy new preface by the author, presenting a somewhat embellished version of the genesis of the story. This edition is the one most widely published and read now, although a few editions follow the 1818 text.[64] Some scholars prefer the original version, arguing that it preserves the spirit of Mary Shelley's vision (see Anne K. Mellor's "Choosing a Text of Frankenstein to Teach" in the W. W. Norton Critical edition).

Frankenstein has been both well received and disregarded since its anonymous publication in 1818. Critical reviews of that time demonstrate these two views, along with confused speculation as to the identity of the author. Walter Scott, writing in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, congratulated "the author's original genius and happy power of expression," although he was less convinced about the way in which the monster gains knowledge about the world and language.[65] La Belle Assemblée described the novel as "very bold fiction"[66] and the Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany hoped to see "more productions ... from this author".[67] On the other hand, John Wilson Croker, writing anonymously in the Quarterly Review, although conceding that "the author has powers, both of conception and language," described the book as "a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity."[68]

In two other reviews where the author is known as the daughter of William Godwin, the criticism of the novel makes reference to the feminine nature of Mary Shelley. The British Critic attacks the novel's flaws as the fault of the author: "The writer of it is, we understand, a female; this is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the novel; but if our authoress can forget the gentleness of her sex, it is no reason why we should; and we shall therefore dismiss the novel without further comment".[69] The Literary Panorama and National Register attacks the novel as a "feeble imitation of Mr. Godwin's novels" produced by the "daughter of a celebrated living novelist."[70] Despite these reviews, Frankenstein achieved an almost immediate popular success. It became widely known, especially through melodramatic theatrical adaptations—Mary Shelley saw a production of Presumption; or The Fate of Frankenstein, a play by Richard Brinsley Peake, in 1823.

Critical reception of Frankenstein has been largely positive since the mid-20th century.[71] Major critics such as M. A. Goldberg and Harold Bloom have praised the "aesthetic and moral" relevance of the novel,[72] although there have also been critics, such as Germaine Greer, who criticized the novel for technical and narrative defects (such as it featuring three narrators who speak in the same way).[73] In more recent years the novel has become a popular subject for psychoanalytic and feminist criticism: Lawrence Lipking states: "[E]ven the Lacanian subgroup of psychoanalytic criticism, for instance, has produced at least half a dozen discrete readings of the novel".[74] Frankenstein has frequently been recommended on Five Books, with literary scholars, psychologists, novelists, and historians citing it as an influential text.[75] Today, the novel is generally considered to be a landmark work of Romantic and Gothic literature, as well as science fiction.[76]

Film director Guillermo del Toro describes Frankenstein as "the quintessential teenage book", noting that the feelings that "You don't belong. You were brought to this world by people that don't care for you and you are thrown into a world of pain and suffering, and tears and hunger" are an important part of the story. He adds that "it's an amazing book written by a teenage girl. It's mind-blowing."[77] Professor of philosophy Patricia MacCormack says that the Creature addresses the most fundamental human questions: "It's the idea of asking your maker what your purpose is. Why are we here, what can we do?"[77] On November 5, 2019, the BBC News listed Frankenstein on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[78]

There are numerous novels retelling or continuing the story of Frankenstein and his monster.

A promotional photo of Boris Karloff, as Frankenstein's monster, using Jack Pierce's makeup design

• 1823: Richard Brinsley Peake's adaptation, Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, was seen by Mary Shelley and her father William Godwin at the English Opera House.[79]
• 1826: Henry M. Milner's adaptation, The Man and The Monster; or The Fate of Frankenstein opened on 3 July at the Royal Coburg Theatre, London.[80]
• 1887: Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim was a musical burlesque written by Richard Henry (a pseudonym of Richard Butler and Henry Chance Newton).[81]
• 1910: Edison Studios produced the first Frankenstein film, directed by J. Searle Dawley.[77]
• 1915: Life Without Soul, the second film adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, was released. No known print of the film has survived.[82]
• 1920: The Monster of Frankenstein, directed by Eugenio Testa, starring Luciano Albertini and Umberto Guarracino.[82]
• 1931: Universal Studios' Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, starring Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye, and Boris Karloff as the Monster.[77]
• 1935: James Whale directed the sequel to the 1931 film, Bride of Frankenstein, starring Colin Clive as Frankenstein, and Boris Karloff as the Monster once more. This incorporated the novel's plot motif of Frankenstein creating a bride for the Monster omitted from Whale's earlier film. There were two more sequels, prior to the Universal "monster rally" films combining multiple monsters from various movie series or film franchises.[77]
• 1939: Son of Frankenstein was another Universal monster movie with Boris Karloff as the Creature. Also in the film were Basil Rathbone as the title character and Bela Lugosi as the sinister assistant Ygor. This is Karloff's final appearance as Frankenstein's monster.[83]
• 1942: The Ghost of Frankenstein featured brain transplanting and a new Monster, played by Lon Chaney Jr. The film also starred Evelyn Ankers and Bela Lugosi as Ygor.[84]
• 1942–1948: Universal did "monster rally" films featuring Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolf Man and Dracula. Included were Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, The House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The last three films introduced Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's Monster.[85]
• 1957–1974: Hammer Films in England did a string of Frankenstein films starring Peter Cushing, including The Curse of Frankenstein, The Revenge of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. Co-starring in these films were Christopher Lee, Hazel Court, Veronica Carlson and Simon Ward. Another Hammer film, The Horror of Frankenstein, starred Ralph Bates as the main character, Baron Victor Frankenstein.[77]
• 1965: Toho Studios released the film Frankenstein vs. Baragon, followed by the sequel The War of the Gargantuas in 1966.[86]
• 1968: An episode of Mystery and Imagination, a British television anthology series of classic horror, adapted Frankenstein, starring Ian Holm in dual roles as both Victor Frankenstein and his creation, named in the credits as "the Being."
• 1972: A comedic stage adaptation, Frankenstein's Monster, was written by Sally Netzel and produced by the Dallas Theater Center.[87]
• 1973: The two-part TV film Frankenstein: The True Story appeared on NBC. The movie starred Leonard Whiting, Michael Sarrazin, James Mason, and Jane Seymour.[88]
• 1981: A Broadway adaptation by Victor Gialanella played for one performance (after 29 previews) and was considered the most expensive flop ever produced to that date.[89]
• 1984: The flop Broadway production yielded a TV film starring Robert Powell, Carrie Fisher, David Warner, and John Gielgud.[90]
• 1992: Frankenstein became a Turner Network Television film directed by David Wickes, starring Patrick Bergin and Randy Quaid. John Mills played the blind man.[91]
• 1994: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein appeared in theatres, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, with Robert De Niro and Helena Bonham Carter. Its all-star cast also included John Cleese, Ian Holm, and Tom Hulce.[77]
• 2004: Frankenstein, a two-episode miniseries starring Alec Newman, with Luke Goss and Donald Sutherland.[92]
• 2006: Frankenstein - A New Musical, composed by Mark Baron, book by Jeffrey Jackson, and based on an adaptation by Gary P. Cohen.[93]
• 2007: Frankenstein, an award-winning musical adaptation by Jonathan Christenson with set, lighting, and costume design by Bretta Gerecke for Catalyst Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta.[94]
• 2011: In March, BBC3 broadcast Colin Teague's live production from Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds, billed as Frankenstein's Wedding, Live in Leeds.[95] About the same time, the National Theatre, London presented a stage version of Frankenstein, which ran until 2 May 2011. The play was written by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle. Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch alternated the roles of Frankenstein and the Creature.[77] The National Theatre broadcast live performances of the play worldwide on 17 March.
• 2012: An interactive ebook app created by Inkle and Profile Books that retells the story with added interactive elements.[96]
• 2014: Penny Dreadful is a horror TV series that airs on Showtime, that features Victor Frankenstein as well as his Creature.[97]
• 2015: Frankenstein, a modern-day adaptation written and directed by Bernard Rose.[98]
• 2015: Victor Frankenstein is an American film directed by Paul McGuigan.[99]
• 2016: Frankenstein, a full-length ballet production by Liam Scarlett.[100] Some performances were also live simulcasts worldwide.[101]

Loose adaptations

• 1967: I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night and its sequel Frankenstein Unbound (Another Monster Musical) are a pair of musical comedies written by Bobby Pickett and Sheldon Allman. The casts of both feature several classic horror characters including Dr. Frankenstein and his monster.[102]
• 1971: Lady Frankenstein is an Italian horror film directed by Mel Welles and written by Edward di Lorenzo. The story begins when Dr. Frankenstein is killed by the monster he created; his daughter and his lab assistant Marshall then continue with his experiments.[103]
• 1973: The Rocky Horror Show, is a British horror comedy stage musical written by Richard O'Brian in which Dr. Frank N. Furter has created a creature (Rocky), to satisfy his (pro)creative drives. The plot elements are similar to I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night.[104]
• 1973: Flesh for Frankenstein. Usually, Frankenstein is a man whose dedication to science takes him too far, but here his interest is to rule the world by creating a new species that will obey him and do his bidding.[105]
• 1974: Young Frankenstein. Directed by Mel Brooks, this sequel-spoof has been listed[106] as one of the best movie comedies of any comedy genre ever made, even prompting an American film preservation program to include it on its listings. It reuses many props from James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein and is shot in black-and-white with 1930s-style credits. Gene Wilder portrayed the descendant of Dr. Frankenstein (who insists on pronouncing it "Fronkonschteen"), with Peter Boyle as the Monster.
• 1975: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock stage musical, The Rocky Horror Show (1973), written by Richard O'Brien.[104]
• 1984: Frankenweenie is a parody short film directed by Tim Burton, starring Barrett Oliver, Shelley Duvall and Daniel Stern.[107]
• 1985: The Bride starring Sting as Baron Charles Frankenstein and Jennifer Beals as Eva, a woman he creates in the same fashion as his infamous Monster.[108]
• 1986: Gothic, directed by Ken Russell, is the story of the night that Mary Shelley gave birth to Frankenstein. Starring Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson.[109]
• 1988: Frankenstein (フランケンシュタイン) is a manga adaptation of Shelley's novel by Junji Ito.[110]
• 1989: Frankenstein the Panto. A pantomime script by David Swan, combining elements of Frankenstein, Dracula, and traditional British pantomime.[111]
• 1990: Frankenstein Unbound.[112] Combines a time-travel story with the story of Shelley's novel. Scientist Joe Buchanan accidentally creates a time-rift which takes him back to the events of the novel. Filmed as a low-budget independent film by Roger Corman in 1990, based on a novel published in 1973 by Brian Aldiss.[113] This novel bears no relation to the 1967 stage musical with the same name listed above.
• 1991: Khatra is a Hindi movie of Bollywood made by director H. N. Singh loosely based on the story of Frankenstein.
• 1995: Monster Mash is a film adaptation of I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night[114] starring Bobby "Boris" Pickett as Dr. Frankenstein. The film also features Candace Cameron Bure, Anthony Crivello and Mink Stole.
• 1998: Billy Frankenstein is a very loose adaptation about a boy who moves into a mansion with his family and brings the Frankenstein Monster to life. The film was directed by Fred Olen Ray.
• 2004: Frankenstein[115] is a made-for-TV film based on Dean Koontz's Frankenstein.
• 2005: Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove, a 90-minute feature film homage of classic monsters and Atomic Age creature features, shot in black and white, and directed by William Winckler. The Frankenstein Monster design and make-up was based on the character descriptions in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel.
• 2009: Frankenhood, a feature film comedy where a corpse is brought back to life by a mad scientist to help morgue employees win a street basketball tournament.[116]
• 2009: The Diary of Anne Frankenstein, a short film from Chillerama.[117]
• 2011: Frankenstein: Day of the Beast is an independent horror film based loosely on the original book.
• 2011: Victor Frankenstein appears in the ABC show Once Upon a Time, a fantasy series on ABC that features multiple characters from fairy tales and classic literature trapped in the real world.[118]
• 2012: Frankenweenie, Tim Burton's feature film remake of his 1984 short film of the same name.[107]
• 2012: In the Adventure Time episode "Princess Monster Wife", the Ice King removes body parts from all the princesses that rejected him and creates a jigsaw wife to love him.
• 2012: A Nightmare on Lime Street, Fred Lawless's comedy play starring David Gest staged at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.[119]
• 2014: I, Frankenstein is a 2014 fantasy action film.[120] The film stars Aaron Eckhart as Adam Frankenstein and Bill Nighy. The film is based on the graphic novel.
• 2014: Frankenstein, MD, a web show by Pemberly Digital starring Victoria, a female adaptation of Victor.
• 2015: The Supernatural season 10 episodes "Book of the Damned", "Dark Dynasty" and "The Prisoner"[121] feature the Styne Family which member Eldon Styne identifies as the descendants of the house of Frankenstein. According to Eldon, Mary Shelley had learned their secrets while on a visit to Castle Frankenstein and wrote a book based on her experiences, forcing the Frankensteins underground as the Stynes. The Stynes, through bio-engineering and surgical enhancements, feature many of the superhuman attributes of the Frankenstein Monster.
• 2015: The Frankenstein Chronicles is a British television drama series, starring Sean Bean as John Marlott and Anna Maxwell Martin as Mary Shelley.[122]
• 2016: Second Chance, a TV series known at one point as Frankenstein, was inspired by the classic.[123]
• 2020: "The Haunting of Villa Diodati", an episode of Doctor Who, is based on the period in 1816 where Shelley was at Villa Diodati, providing an alternative basis, within the Doctor Who universe, of the origin of the Frankenstein monster as a half-converted Cyberman.[124]

• Richard Holmes, "Out of Control" (review of Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds, edited by David H. Guston, Ed Finn, and Jason Scott Robert, MIT Press, 277 pp.; and Mary Shelley, The New Annotated Frankenstein, edited and with a foreword and notes by Leslie S. Klinger, Liveright, 352 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXIV, no. 20 (21 December 2017), pp. 38, 40–41.

• Frankenstein at Standard Ebooks

• Frankenstein at Project Gutenberg

• Frankenstein 1818 edition at Project Gutenberg
• Frankenstein public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Chronology and Resource Site
• "On Frankenstein", review by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Volume one and Volume two of Shelley's notebooks with her handwritten draft of Frankenstein