Show Notes
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is often called the first science fiction novel for good reason. The problematic goth queen was only 18 when she wrote this novel at a gloomy lakehouse in Switzerland in 1816, but its lessons about scientific hubris and themes of parental abandonment and guilt are forever relevant. Shelley’s prose remains haunting and gorgeous, and her social circle is one of history’s greatest blunt rotations. The Pagenerds take us back to the early 19th Century and look at how Frankenstein and his monster emerged from cutting edge science of the time and look at the real Victor Frankenstein — an actual scientist who actually pumped electricity through severed limbs and heads to make them move.
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