How it was written

Frankenstein began as a challenge between friends on a wet summer holiday by Lake Geneva.

1. 
   1815

   A year without a summer

   In 1815 the volcano Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia. The next year was so cold and wet in Europe that 1816 is remembered as the Year Without a Summer.

2. 
   June 1816

   Friends at Villa Diodati

   Lord Byron rented the Villa Diodati near Geneva, with his young doctor John Polidori. Mary Godwin, aged 18, and Percy Shelley stayed close by, with Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont.

3. 
   1816

   The ghost story contest

   Kept indoors by the rain, Byron suggested they each write a ghost story. Mary's idea grew into Frankenstein. Polidori's became The Vampyre.

4. 
   1817

   From short tale to novel

   With Percy's encouragement Mary turned the tale into a novel and finished it in the spring of 1817.

5. 
   1818

   1818: published without her name

   Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus came out in London on 1 January 1818, with no author named on it.

6. 
   1831

   1831: her own name and a new introduction

   A revised edition appeared under Mary Shelley's name, with an introduction telling how the story came to her. Our audiobook follows the 1831 text.

Read more

• The making of FrankensteinBritish Library
• Villa DiodatiWikipedia
• Year Without a SummerWikipedia

Sources: 1, 2