Frankenstein

Frankenstein is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century Gothicism and the prototype of the twentieth-century science fiction novel. The novel was conceived in 1816, after Mary Shelley's late-night conversation with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron about bringing corpses to life and her subsequent nightmare about a student who built a human being and "woke him up" with machinery. The monster's culpability for various horrific acts and his powerlessness in the face of ostracism from society, combined with Dr. Frankenstein's lies and abdication of responsibility, raised chilling questions that made the novel both an instant bestseller and a timeless classic.. Alan Cheuse is a novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and literary critic. His most recent short-story collection is The Tennessee Waltz, and he is the author of the memoir Fall out of Heaven. He is the producer and host of the Syndicated Fiction/National Public Radio short-story magazine of the air The Sound of Writing, and he serves as book commentator for NPR's evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. He is a member of the writing faculty at George Mason University.