Making the Monster: The Science Behind Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Bloomsbury Sigma) by Kathryn Harkup

Making the Monster: The Science Behind Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by Kathryn Harkup

The year 1818 saw the publication of one of the most influential science-fiction stories of all time: Frankenstein: Or, Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. The name Frankenstein has become part of our everyday language, often used to describe scientists who have overstepped a perceived moral line. But how did a 19-year-old woman with no formal education come up with the idea for such an extraordinary novel?

The 19th-Century Science That Inspired a Masterpiece

The period of 1790–1820 saw huge advances in our understanding of electricity and physiology. Sensational science demonstrations caught the imagination of the general public, and newspapers were full of tales of murderers and resurrectionists. Making the Monster explores the science and scientists that influenced Mary Shelley and inspired her most famous creation, Victor Frankenstein. From tales of reanimated zombie kittens to electrical experiments on human cadavers, Kathryn Harkup examines the gruesome experiments that provided the foundation for the novel.

From Gothic Horror to Modern Science

It is unlikely that Frankenstein would have been successful in his attempts to create life back in 1818. However, advances in medical science mean we have overcome many of the stumbling blocks that would have thwarted his ambition. We can now perform procedures once considered science fiction:

• Resuscitating people using defibrillators
• Saving lives using blood transfusions
• Prolonging life through organ transplants

While, thankfully, we are still far from being able to recreate Victor's "creature," scientists have tried to create the building blocks of life, and the dream of creating life-forms from scratch is now tantalizingly close.