The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Lovecraft's finest long-form narrative by many estimates; filmed (loosely) as The Haunted Palace and The Resurrected, and a model for necromantic horror since.
Book Entry · Science Fiction
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
by Mary Shelley · 1818
What is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus about?
Swiss student Victor Frankenstein discovers the principle of life, assembles a creature from charnel-house raw materials, and flees in revulsion from the result — the first and most catastrophic case of a scientist failing his ethics review. Abandoned and self-educated, the creature turns on its maker with terrible eloquence, demanding a mate and exacting revenge across Europe to the Arctic ice. Told in nested narratives, it is simultaneously a gothic shocker, a philosophical novel about responsibility and nurture, and the founding text of science fiction.
Why it matters
Widely regarded as the first science fiction novel. Endlessly adapted (notably Universal's 1931 film) and the source of the genre's central myth: creation without responsibility. The 1831 revised text is the one most readers know.
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