Today’s Quote Of The Day comes from Mary Shelley (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Godwin; August 30, 1797 – February 1, 1851), an English novelist who wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818; considered an early example of science fiction. She wrote the story while visiting Geneva and spending the summer there with her family, and the poet Lord Byron.
Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa one dark and stormy evening, with no Internet they amused themselves by telling ghost stories, which prompted a challenge for everyone to write one of their own. It did not come immediately to Mary. At one point, she wondered if perhaps a corpse could be re-animated, and began writing her now-famous, creepy tale, (originally envisioned as a short story) later that night and into the morning and over the summer. She later described that summer in Switzerland as the moment when she “first stepped out from childhood into life."
In her later years, Mary Shelley's suffered from headaches and periods of paralysis. She died at the age of fifty-three, apparently from a brain tumor, and was not re-animated as far as anyone knows. Frankenstein is still widely read today and has inspired many theatrical and film adaptations over the years. (“What hump?”)
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