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Mary Shelley began Frankenstein in the summer of 1816, when she was 18, after a ghost-story contest with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley by Lake Geneva. The novel was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20.

Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva, 1816

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The story behind the card

That summer is remembered as the Year Without a Summer: the huge eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the year before had cooled the world, and cold rain kept the friends indoors at the Villa Diodati, which Byron had rented. After an evening of reading German ghost stories, Byron proposed that each of them write one. Mary struggled for days until the image of a scientist horrified by the creature he had brought to life came to her. Byron's doctor, John Polidori, wrote The Vampyre in the same contest. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus first appeared in three volumes, just 500 copies, with a preface by Percy. Her name was first printed on it in a French translation of 1821 and, in Britain, in the second edition of 1823. It is often called one of the first science-fiction novels.

Türkçe oku
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein'ı 1816 yazında, 18 yaşındayken yazmaya başladı. Fikir, Cenevre Gölü kıyısında Lord Byron ve Percy Shelley ile aralarında yaptıkları bir hayalet hikâyesi yarışmasından doğdu. Roman 1 Ocak 1818'de Londra'da yazar adı olmadan yayımlandığında Mary 20 yaşındaydı.
Villa Diodati, Cenevre Gölü, 1816

O yaz tarihe “Yazsız Yıl” olarak geçti: Bir yıl önce Endonezya'daki Tambora Dağı'nın büyük patlaması dünyayı soğutmuştu ve soğuk yağmurlar arkadaşları Byron'ın kiraladığı Villa Diodati'de eve kapattı. Alman hayalet hikâyeleri okudukları bir akşamın ardından Byron, her birinin bir hikâye yazmasını önerdi. Mary günlerce bir fikir aradı; sonunda, hayat verdiği yaratıktan dehşete düşen bir bilim insanının görüntüsü aklına geldi. Byron'ın doktoru John Polidori de aynı yarışmada Vampir adlı öyküsünü yazdı. Frankenstein ya da Modern Prometheus önce üç cilt hâlinde ve yalnızca 500 adet basıldı; önsözünü Percy yazmıştı. Mary'nin adı kitapta ilk kez 1821'deki Fransızca çeviride, İngiltere'de ise 1823'teki ikinci baskıda yer aldı. Roman çoğu zaman ilk bilim kurgu romanlarından biri olarak anılır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Frankenstein
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