Mary Shelley Wrote Frankenstein at Age 18

The novel's origins lie in a period of climatic chaos. The year 1816 was known as the "Year Without a Summer" due to the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, which blanketed the globe in ash and caused severe weather anomalies. Trapped indoors by the relentless rain and gloom at a villa on Lake Geneva, a group of literary friends, including Mary Godwin (soon to be Shelley), Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron, decided to hold a competition to see who could write the best ghost story.

While the others soon abandoned their efforts, 18-year-old Mary was struck by a powerful vision. The group had been discussing the era's fascinating and frightening scientific experiments, particularly the concept of galvanism, which suggested that electricity could potentially reanimate dead tissue. This inspired a "waking dream" in which she saw a "pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together." That terrifying image of a creator horrified by his own creation became the seed of her story.

Encouraged by Percy Shelley, Mary expanded her short tale into a full novel. Published anonymously in 1818, *Frankenstein* tapped directly into the public's anxieties about scientific overreach. It transcended the simple ghost story challenge of that gloomy summer to become a profound exploration of humanity, responsibility, and the ethical boundaries of discovery, establishing a new genre of literature in the process.