A Time of Monsters

Victor Frankenstein, the “Modern Prometheus” of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, draws on his biochemical studies at the University of Ingolstadt to create life by reanimating the dead. While the gothic elements of Shelley’s narrative have ensured its place in the pantheons of popular horror, it is also arguably the first instance of science fiction, used by its young author to interrogate the Prometheanism that animated the intellectual culture of her day.