1. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

2. Mary Shelley ( )
Daughter of Mary Wollstoncraft (who died in childbirth), writer of A Vindication on the Rights of Women;
Born in London but spent much of her teen years writing stories in Scotland;
Married to the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley;
Widowed at age 24 and supported herself with her writing;
Published Frankenstein in 1818 at the age of 20

3. Romantic Movement (late 1700s to early 1830s)
Spanned late 1700s to early 1830s
Valued natural world; sought solitude in nature; nature imagery predominant feature of Romantic literature ;
Fascination with youth and innocence;
Sense of social idealism;
Ability to accept and adapt to change rather than rigidly rejecting it;
Disenfranchised person - sympathetic to those who were unable to live in society

4. Gothic Literature Offshoot of Romanticism;
Predecessor of modern horror movies (in theme and style);
Spin on Romantic idea valuing nature;
Nature has ability to destroy as well as heal; indication of mood through the weather;
American writers Poe and Hawthorne examples of Gothic writers as are English writers Shelley and Coleridge

5. As you read:
Pay attention to Shelley’s allusions to such texts as Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Milton’s Paradise Lost (and the story of Adam & Eve), and the story of the Greek god Prometheus.
***Very important: Remember Nabokov’s advice about bringing too much to the text; read with open imagination.