Frankenstein

Victor Frankenstein creates a living being from dead matter — then abandons it in horror. The creature, intelligent and sensitive but rejected by all, turns to vengeance.

Born from a ghost story competition during a stormy summer at Lake Geneva, the novel unfolds through a layered narrative of letters and confessions. Victor’s tale of obsessive ambition and its terrible aftermath is mirrored by the creature’s own eloquent account of rejection, loneliness, and a desperate longing for companionship that curdles into rage.

Written by Mary Shelley when she was just eighteen years old and published in 1818, Frankenstein is widely regarded as one of the earliest works of science fiction. Its questions about creation, responsibility, and what makes us human have only grown more urgent in an age of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.