The Gothic I: Frankenstein

Mary Godwin; John Polidori; Lord Byron; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Claire Clairmont

On the origins of Frankenstein:

The origin of the story [The Vampyre, but also Frankenstein] can be traced back to the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (later Shelley), Mary’s step-sister Claire Clairmont and Polidori spent a scandalous summer in 1816. It was a ‘wet, ungenial summer’, and to pass the time the party began reading ghost stories. According to Mary it was Byron who announced, "We will each write a ghost story." Mary duely wrote "Frankenstein", Shelley apparently wrote nothing, Byron produced a brief fragment of a story which he quickly abandoned, and "poor Polidori had a terrible idea about a skull-headed lady."

Reading: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Vol. I—Vol.II, Ch.2 (to just before the Creature tells his tale).

On-line: Here is a link to the full text of John Polidori's The Vampyre (it's only 20pp.) [Update: that one is full of typos: the Project Gutenberg text is better]; Fragment of a Novel (1816) by George Gordon, Lord Byron: "The Mortal Immortal" by Mary Shelley

Presentation(s): Rachel on Mary Wollstonecraft

Links:

Polidori resources online
Polidori print resources
"Teaching the Truth about Byron's Vampyre Letter" by Jeffrey D. Hoeper( The South Central Modern Language Association, November 10, 2000)
Dark Romanticism: Byron, Coleridge, Mary Shelley, and the Pursuit of the Supernatural: an exhibition
"Dracula and Frankenstein: a tale of two monsters" by Elizabeth Miller
"The Rise of the Vampire" by Grace Moore, Strand Magazine (excerpts).
Some other vampire narratives
Literature of the Fantastic
Suzy McKee Charnas, contemporary writer of vampire stories, has a page with some reading suggestions.

Class cancelled today

Class is cancelled because of the weather. Rachel can do her presention next week. We can condense the whole Frankenstein discussion into one week.