"A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs"

Frankenstein, one of English Literature’s great gothic masterpieces, was written by Mary Shelley in 1818. It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. When the “monster” realises how he came to be and is rejected by mankind, he seeks revenge on his creator’s family to avenge his own sorrow. The story has taken on a life of its own with the help of numerous horror movies, but Shelley’s novel weaves a more complex and sympathetic narrative. That said, the short story  Shelley frightened the poet Lord Byron so much he ran shrieking from the room.