FRANKENSTEIN

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by Mary Shelley about a creature produced by an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823.

Frankenstein' (Mary Shelley) has entered fictional history as a book about a man-made monster. However, this is a gross understatement for a book that contains as its central themes ideas about idealism and passion, selfishness and cruelty, good and evil. Under any circumstance this would make for a compelling novel, but it is one that has gained new relevance amidst the contemporary debate about genetically created animals and genetically modified foods.