Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein in the summer of 1816, during a stay near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, and completed it in 1817; it was first published in 1818.

Key dates

  • Mary Shelley started drafting Frankenstein in 1816, after a ghost-story challenge proposed by Lord Byron during the famous rainy summer by Lake Geneva.
  • She finished the novel in 1817, when she was about 19–20 years old.
  • Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was first published anonymously on 1 January 1818 in London.

Quick context

  • Mary Shelley was only around eighteen when she first conceived and began writing this novel , which grew out of discussions about science, life, and reanimation with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.
  • A revised edition with notable stylistic and tonal changes appeared in 1831 under her own name, and this later version is what most modern readers encounter.

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