Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein while on vacation in the Swiss Alps with her friends. After a storm kept them inside all day, the group began reading ghost stories. Lord Byron suggested that they all attempt to write their own horror stories. After a few hours of writing they came back together and all read each others. Shelley’s story was deemed as the best because it was just as scary as the other ghost stories that they had read before.
Plot
A series of letters written by Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, to his sister explaining his dangerous mission to her. Captain Walton’s ship becomes stuck by a think sheet of ice where he funds Victor Frankenstein, who is traveling by dog sled across the ice and is weakened by the cold. Walton brings him aboard his ship to help nurse him back to health, where he also hears all about the monster that Frankenstein had created. Victor describes his childhood to Walton and how he has spent several years doing research trying to find the secret of life. When he commences his research he begins designing a creature out of old body parts. Then, one night in secret he brings his creature to life.