The tale of Dr. Frankenstein and the horrendous monster he unleashes on the world when he tinkers with the laws of nature had almost as strange a birth as the monster itself. It was the product of one of the most famous ghost story telling sessions in history. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and several others were stranded on the shores of Lake Geneva during a particularly sodden summer. They challenged each other to come up with the most ghastly and soul-rending story their sizable literary talents could muster, and the hands-down winner came from Shelley's wife - Mary Shelley.

The novel that emerged several years later has been recognised as one of the most chilling and gruesome horror stories ever written, and it is certainly one of the most famous. It's a moving account of a battle for independence, it's a warning against man's pride in his ability to change the world with his blind pursuit of science, it's a story of revolt and revenge and, most intriguingly, it was one of the first novels to be written where the narrator is not necessarily a reliable witness, and we are left to carve the truth of the matter out for ourselves.

This is an alarming book - in several very enjoyable ways.

Author Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797-1851) was a novelist, dramatist, essayist, biographer and travel writer. She is, however, best known for her Gothic horror novel Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus, published 1818. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley.