Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein

"It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils."

How Mary Shelley came to write Frankenstein is one of the best creation stories in all British literature.  A brainy but troubled English teenager runs off to Switzerland where she spends the unusually stormy summer of 1816 holed up on the shores of Lake Geneva with her odd stepsister and a trio of brilliant, partyboy writers.  In response to a challenge from the group’s leader to compose a ghost story, the teenager – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley – writes what will become a classic horror story: "Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus."

This handsome picture book tells the story effectively.  The bold art with its muted color palette is strikingly appropriate and captures the somber tone of the story itself and of “the year without a summer” that provided an ominous backdrop for the author’s creative process.

Includes a substantial author’s note that unpacks more of Mary Shelley’s story.