Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by Mary Shelley and first published in 1818.

Shelley is the daughter of celebrated authors William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and also the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Legend has it that the novel is the product of a wager between Shelley, her future husband, Percy and Lord Byron who were travelling together in Europe in and around 1814. Byron suggested that, over a few days, each write a ghost story to amuse the other travelers. Mary Shelley incorporated much of her surroundings in the text - not only the alpine features of Switzerland, but also many conversations regarding galvanism, chemistry and elements of the occult she had been exposed to.

Shelley's narrative synthesises elements of the Romantic and epistolary traditions as well as Gothic tropes and, as Brian Aldiss has argued, may be seen as the progenitor of the science-fiction genre, inventing many devices unseen before her original story-telling technique.

This course presents a complete overview of the novel.

Slides are used to break the text into 29 distinct phases that follow the events of the Walton letters that bookend the novel as well as the 24 chapters between.

Flash card spresent a visual accompaniment to introduce themes and relateable quotes from the text.

Mind-map Quotes demonstrate how Shelley humanises her monster in the same way as Shakespeare makes Caliban an object of pity.

Major characters, again through use of a mind-map, are shown through a visual interrelationship.

Slides explore the major themes within the text.

Finally, a timed quiz will test you on what you have learned.

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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Themes

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