Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's first novel, has established itself as one of modernity's most compelling and ominous myths. The story of the ambitious student of natural philosophy, who discovers the secret of life and constructs a living thing from inanimate materials, exudes an enduring fascination as an apt allegory of our own fraught relationship with the ever more complex machines we create. Skilfully conflating tradition and the individual imagination, Frankenstein poignantly captures the spirit of the early 1800s as an age of transition tragically divided between scientific progress and religious conservatism, revolutionary reform and conformist reaction.