Page 95 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysterious Creatures 75

he novel Frankenstein: A Modern Prome-
theus (1818) with its story of the daring sci-
entist Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the mon- Who Was the
Tster made of human parts that he brought
to life is one of the most famous works of fiction. Mary
Inspiration for
Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797–1851) was 16 when she
met the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). Mary
Dr. Frankenstein?
ran off to Europe with Shelley in 1816, and they spent
the summer with Lord George Gordon Byron
Sources:
(1788–1824) and his friend and personal physician Dr.
Hardy, Phil. The Encyclopedia of Horror Movies. New York:
John Polidori (1795–1821) in Geneva. To pass the time
Harper & Row, 1986.
during a dreary summer, Lord Byron suggested that
Internet Movie Database Inc. [Online] http://us.imdb.com.
each of them should write a ghost story. Eighteen-
Stanley, John. Creature Features: The Science Fiction, Fantasy,
year-old Mary was the only one of the four who actu-
and Horror Movie Guide. New York: Boulevard, 1997.
ally fulfilled the assignment, publishing her novel two Radford, Tim. “Frankenstein May Have Been Based on Scots
years after she married Shelley in December 1816. Scientist.” The Guardian, May 1, 2002. [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4404697,00.html.
While the novel has been hailed as a masterpiece
Veitch, Jennifer. “So Who Is Behind the Monster?” Edinburgh
and a work of genius, scholars have long debated the
Evening News, May 3, 2002. [Online] http://www.edinburgh
source of Mary Shelley’s inspiration. What—or
news.com/capitalcity.cfm?id=476592002.
who—suggested the character of Dr. Victor Franken-
stein, who became the prototype of the mad or
obsessed scientist?
In 2002, while researching the influence of sci-
ence upon the poetry of Percy Shelley, Chris Goulding,
a Ph.D. student at Newcastle University, found histori-
cal documents that indicated that the model for Victor
Frankenstein was Dr. James Lind (1736–1812), Shel-
ley’s scientific mentor at Eton in 1809–10. Lind had
become fascinated with the ability of electrical
impulses to provoke muscle movement in the legs of
dead frogs, and he was quite likely the first scientist in
England to conduct experiments similar to those that
enabled Dr. Frankenstein to focus electricity from
lightning and bring his monster to life. Percy Shelley
was interested in science, and Goulding points out
passages in Mary Shelley’s unfinished biography of
her husband wherein she commented that Percy
often spoke of the great intellectual debt that he owed
to Dr. Lind.

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