Frankenstein Trivia: 15 facts about one of the most well known fictional characters in the world!

Frankenstein is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque but sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.

1.  Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. At the same time, it is an early example of science fiction.

2. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition of the novel was published anonymously in London in 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared on the second edition, published in France in 1823.

3. The novel resulted from a competition between Mary, her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and the writer John Polidori to see who could write the best horror story

4. It is said that the plot came to Mary Shelley in a dream about a scientist who created life.

5. “How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?” — Mary Shelley

6. Mary Shelley said the name of Frankenstein came in her dream but in Germany there is a Castle Frankenstein, which she may have visited.

7. Frankenstein’s monster is given no name in the book but referred to only as ‘creature’, ‘monster’, ‘fiend’, ‘wretch’, ‘vile insect’, ‘demon’, ‘being’, or ‘it’.

8. An alchemist named Conrad Dippel is believed to have experimented with human bodies at Castle Frankenstein in the early 18th century.

9. Frankenstein has inspired more than 130 films, starting with the silent Frankenstein in 1910.

10. During a telling of Frankenstein, Shelley referred to the creature as “Adam”. Shelley was referring to the first man in the Garden of Eden.

11. The earliest use of the term ‘Frankenstein food’ to refer to genetically modified food was in 1989.

12. ‘Frankenfood’ followed in 1992, followed by Frankenfruit, Frankenplants and Frankenscience.

13. Frankenstein has inspired more than 130 films, starting with the silent Frankenstein in 1910.

14. The music for California’s state anthem, I Love You California, was written by A.F. Frankenstein.

15. Mary’s and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s manuscripts for the first three-volume edition in 1818 (written 1816–1817), as well as Mary Shelley’s fair copy for her publisher, are now housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.