The original Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was written by Mary Shelley (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley).

Quick Scoop: Authorship

  • The novel was first published anonymously in 1818, but it is now firmly credited to Mary Shelley as the author.
  • Her name appeared on later editions, including the 1823 English edition and the 1831 revised edition.
  • Mary Shelley herself later explained the novel’s origin and confirmed it as her own work in the 1831 introduction.

What about Percy Shelley?

There has been long‑running debate about how much Mary’s husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, contributed.

  • Most modern scholars agree Percy acted mainly as an editor and stylistic helper, not as the primary author.
  • Manuscript studies and stylometric analyses support Mary Shelley as the main creative mind behind the book’s plot, characters, and themes.
  • Mary Shelley explicitly wrote that she did not “owe the suggestion of one incident” or “one train of feeling” to Percy, except for the preface, which she said he wrote.

A bit of context

  • Mary Shelley began the story in 1816, during the famous ghost‑story challenge at Lake Geneva with Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and others.
  • The first edition (1818) was published when she was about 20 years old.
  • Today, Frankenstein is widely seen as a landmark early work of science fiction and Gothic literature, with Mary Shelley universally recognized as its author.

In short, if you’re answering “who wrote the original Frankenstein?” the clear, accepted answer is: Mary Shelley.

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