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In 1816, Mary Godwin (1797-1851) traveled with her future husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), from England to Lake Geneva, in Switzerland. The couple was recovering from the death of a prematurely born daughter. They brought along Mary's stepsister, Claire, planning to spend the summer with George Gordon Byron, or Lord Byron (1788-1824)--famous for his poetry and infamous for a number of scandalous romantic affairs. The young group was brought together by their love of literature as well as their social ideas: All were concerned by the disturbing political and industrial changes taking place in their home country, England. It was not a good time for social radicals in Great Britain. The French Revolution, which had begun in a liberal spirit, had toppled its nation's monarchy through murder, pushed Napoleon to power, and embroiled Europe in war. England was in a conservative mood, and the group sought refuge on the continent.

Among the topics of discussion were the works of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), poet, physician, and natural scientist (grandfather of Charles, at the time a young boy). The elder Darwin had speculated on the possibility of bringing the dead back to life. The discussions stayed with Mary, and a few days later, still haunted by the death of her daughter, she had a vivid dream:

I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.

This dream formed the seed of the novel Frankenstein published in 1818, destined to become one of the most widely read books in the world and the inspiration for dozens of films and an entire genre of literature.

Mary Shelley's book would establish one of the main themes of science fiction--the scientist driven by ambition or personal motives to create something without regard for ethical concerns. Then, whatever he creates escapes his control and wreaks havoc and terror on the public. In Frankenstein, the creation is a human being; in other novels it would be robots, microbes, or machines transformed into terrible weapons. Researchers are constantly seen as falling prey to hubris, overweening pride, or reaching beyond one's grasp with no concern for the consequences. It has been a central theme of literature since the ancient Greeks.

Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a wealthy young man fascinated with odd scientific theories. "It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world," Frankenstein relates. He has a friend named Henry Clerval who concerns himself with moral themes, "The busy stage of life, the virtues of heroes, and the actions of men." . . .

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