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Frankenstein & Mary Shelley Books 2018

With the 200th Anniversary year upon us, a number of new books and takes on the Frankenstein story and Mary Shelley biographies have made their appearance, from indie publishers, self-publishing and mainstream.

There are a whole variety of stage productions at theaters large and small, from stagings of the original story adaptations to the more fanciful, including the puppet show version. The “Mary Shelley” movie should make an appearance in theaters in 2018 and Universal Cable Productions has announced a new untitled TV series project from Adam Simon and Robert Masello in which Mary Shelley is to play a part along with other 19th Century authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker and H.G. Wells, in a reimagined “secret society of authors” monsterfest set in Victorian England. Mrs. Shelley has already appeared in the “Frankenstein Chronicles”, the London murder series, going into its second season.

Here is a list of some of the books recently released or soon to come.

Monster: The Early Life of Mary Shelley – by Mark Arnold

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley with and introductions – by Charlotte Gordon

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley – by Charlotte Gordon

Daughter of Earth and Water: Biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley – by Noel Gerson

The Complete Frankenstein: 200 Year Edition: 1818 and 1831 Versions

In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein – By Fiona Sampson

Mary’s Monster: Live, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein – by Lita Judge

Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child: Political Philosophy in “Frankenstein” – by Eileen Hunt Bonning

Mary Shelley: The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein’s Creator – by Catherine Reef

Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds – by Mary Shelley and David H. Guston

The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein – by Antoinette May

Mary, Who Wrote Frankenstein – by Linda Baily (Author) Julia Sarda (Illustrator) A Picture Book!

Son of Terror: Frankenstein Continued, A Sequel – by William A Chanler

And of course…

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein Diaries – Paperback

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein Diaries – Audiobook

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Frankenstein Fraud! Victor Frankenstein College Dropout

“So, Mr. Frankenstein, you say you’re a doctor and that you have created life from dead tissue, by some mysterious means which you don’t support in any substantive way. Might we see your curriculum vitae?”

frankenstein_illustration2018 marks 200 years since the publishing of “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley, and countless versions and adaptations ever since. In many of these, or references to the story, the monster is often called Frankenstein and the main character, Victor Frankenstein, is often referred to as “Dr. Frankenstein”. But after creating his creature, which in the novel he never named, Victor Frankenstein left his studies at Ingolstadt University and returned home to Geneva on the tragic news of his younger brother’s death.

His field of study at Ingolstadt was at first, Natural Philosophy, an Enlightenment precursor to today’s natural sciences, but combining mathematics and chemistry with his own interests in the ancient alchemist notions of Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus, all of which he abandoned on the horror of his creation, missing his examinations to hurry home.

Victor Frankenstein was essentially a college dropout, so to call himself a doctor would have been fraudulent. He certainly never practiced medicine following the events at Ingolstadt. But he was perhaps distracted by other events. He came from a moneyed upper middle-class family, so presumably had no need to practice a trade. He did not establish any practice, nor teach at any institution. If he were to apply for a doctorate, I’m not sure how his interview might go…

“So, Mr. Frankenstein, you say you have discovered the secrets to life and death where others have failed, but you claim your notes were stolen by a monster, which you had sewn together from dead bodies, and kept in your university dormitory apartment bedroom for two years? Perhaps it is a means of refrigeration you have discovered?”

Frankenstein might suggest at this point that he’s working on it. He’s, of course, been thinking of other possible uses for electricity beyond bringing the dead back to life, but hasn’t had the time to develop his thoughts as he’s been preoccupied with some murders in his family.

The interview takes an incredulous turn at this point. “From your dissertation, you say this “demon” being you animated learned to read Plutarch and Goethe, in French, and discuss complex human cultural philosophy solely by observing a mountain farm family though the window of a barn, sustaining himself by eating nuts and berries he gathered in the woods? And no-one but you spoke to this eight foot tall individual of horrific visage, except one old blind man. And you didn’t finish your studies because this unseen horror murdered your little brother…and framed the crime on the housemaid?”

Frankenstein might apologetically have responded that he felt some personal responsibility in not stepping forward at the time, and telling the authorities they should be looking for an eight foot tall man who could run like a gazelle, with well-proportioned arms and sallow, watery, yellow eyes. He might further explain that this man he had once thought beautiful, and meticulously cared for and groomed for two years, turned on him from jealousy when he was rejected, blaming Victor for not loving him, and demanding he make a girlfriend for him who would understand him and love him for who he was, in spite of his flaws, and not the perfect being Victor had unrealistically envisioned when they started together.

Some of Victor Frankenstein’s life was most certainly based on Percy Shelley’s, if not intentionally, by familiarity. Shelley was a college dropout. He went to Oxford, but was asked to leave after anonymously publishing a scandalous tract on atheism authored together with his friend, Thomas Jefferson Hogg. Shelley and Mary lived on Percy Shelley’s family fortune estate income, though Shelley was in conflict with his father over his share and they struggled through thin years. Mary herself never attended a formal school, though women’s education was a major theme of her mother’s writing. She was tutored at home as the daughter of a noted author and publisher, William Godwin, and she was a voracious reader for her education.

The reference to “Doctor Frankenstein” seems to come from the stage or film dramatizations of the story, where in dialogue, just calling him Frankenstein would get repetitive and “Mister Frankenstein” doesn’t seem to carry the weight of gravitas authority for such an important character. And even though his family had money and prominent position, he had no landed title, so Lord or Sir Frankenstein doesn’t work. Many of the later adaptations refer to him as Von Frankenstein, but in the novel he is not a noble and Frankenstein is not a land, just a family name.  He was the son of a local bourgeois government official in French speaking Switzerland, where it would have been “de  Frankenstein” if he was landed.

If the story of Victor Frankenstein’s miraculous creation of life from dead tissue had been verified and not have turned out so tragically, with his desperately following his murderous creation across a frozen north wasteland, he might have been given an honorarium title of doctor, or perhaps even have been knighted. But instead, perhaps the interview might conclude…

“Mr. Frankenstein, while we find your tale intriguing and colorfully inventive, we might suggest you take a long sea voyage and spend some time alone in the artic to gather your thoughts and perhaps submit a revised application, with more footnotes. And some references. Oh, your references have been murdered, too? Well…Hm.”

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Audiobook Free with Audible Trial

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Frankenstein Coin from the Royal Mint

coin_frankensteinAmong the honors and celebrations of the 200th Anniversary of the publishing of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s “Frankenstein, or, The Modern Promotheus” is a £2 commemorative coin from Britain’s Royal Mint.

A variety of coins are issued by the mint each year to mark important dates and events in history. For 2018, aside from the Frankenstein 200th coin is 50 pence coin to mark 100 years since women won the vote in England, and another £2 coin celebrating the end of World War One. To add to the noting of women’s suffrage and women authors, Jane Austen now appears on a new polymer fiber £10 bank note.

The novel of Frankenstein was first published briefly on January 1, 1818, but pulled from shelves and officially published on March 11, 1818. The first editions did not have the authors name on them and Mary Shelley would only get accredited in later editions.

The Frankenstein coin from the Royal Mint has no image of the monster, or indeed the author, but the word “Frankenstein” in an electric jolt of type across the middle of the reverse side of the coin and the outer band which notes “Bicentenary of Mary Shelley’s – 1818 The Modern Prometheus 2018”. On the obverse side is the profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, looking particularly jowly in this recent release.

In some press releases it is referred to as the “Dr. Frankenstein” coin, but Victor Frankenstein never achieved the title of “Doctor”, so, more a courtesy title.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

 

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Publisher of Frankenstein First Edition – Lackington

The Temple of the Muses where Frankenstein was first offered for sale.

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Temple of The Muses Book Emporium

On the cover page of the first printing of “Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus”, the publisher is listed as Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor and Jones of Finsbury Square. Percy Shelley’s correspondence regarding the publishing was usually addressed to Lackington & Allen & Co.. But who were they?

The original founder of the firm, James Lackington had passed away by the time of the publishing of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel. Lackington, who once advertised himself as the “Cheapest Bookseller in the World”, was an early proponent of the “book emporium” with the business philosophy of discount books sold in volume (sound familiar). A self-made man who rose from selling meat pies at the age of ten and an apprenticeship at a shoemaker, he went to London in 1773 to make his fortune, and began selling books as Lackington & Co. in 1774 from his circulating library on Chiswell Street in London. He focused on selling books to all classes of society.

james_lackington_portrait

James Lackington

In 1791 Lackington had become so successful he built a great store and shopping mall on the corner of Finsbury Square he called the “Temple of the Muses”, designed by George Dance, the London city architect who also designed Newgate Prison and London’s Guildhall. The building housed a collection of publishers and assorted shops. An advertisement of the time reported that the bookseller had a half million volumes for sale at any one time and by 1803, the printed catalogue listed 800,000 works available. Its scale was demonstrated at its grand opened by a mail coach and four horses driving around underneath its central dome. It was called “the most extraordinary library in the world”.

lackington_coinIntended to represent a temple to reading, the poet John Keats recalled visiting the Temple of the Muses as a schoolboy to wonder at the towering shelves of books and read for free in the lounges, and eventually met his publishers among the stacks. In a clever bit of self-marketing, customers could pay for books with a token coin with Lackington’s portrait on one side and Greek classical goddess on the reverse.

A trusted employee, Robin Allen, who was said to be an “excellent judge of old books” had risen to partner and the firm was then known as Lackington, Allen & Co. for several years. James Lackington retired in 1798, the year Mary Godwin was born. George Lackington, a third cousin to James, who had worked in the shop as an apprentice since the age of 13, borrowed funds from his successful merchant father to buy a share in the company. Then, through a series of deaths or life misfortunes, the partners changed over the next years. Robin Allen died in 1815 and it took a succession of partners to replace him. Richard Hughes, Joseph Harding, A. Kirkman, and William Mavor, (the son of William Fordyce Mavor who invented shorthand stenography). George Lackington expanded from publishing to real estate and acquired the Egyptian Hall at Picadilly, which he rented out as an exhibition space, (it was torn down in 1905) while his partner, Richard Hughes was a lessor of Sadler’s Wells Theater.

James Lackington wrote an autobiography, or rather a “a biography written by himself”, where he revealed his secrets of bookselling, opined on authors publishing their own works, and on the improving state of knowledge and literature among ladies, which would seem to come into play as the philosophy which led to the publishing of Mary Shelley’s work. The Temple of the Muses at Finsbury Square burned down in 1841 and the business moved to a location on Pall Mall East as Harding and Lepard after George Lackington’s retirement.

“Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus” was first offered to the public by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor and & Jones on New Year’s Day of 1818. It was supposed to be published on December 30 of 1817, but the printing was late. The three volumes sold poorly, blamed on the late delivery and mix up in advertising. The novel was re-published officially on March 11, 1818.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

Get Mary Shelley Memoirs Audiobook Free with Trail at Audible

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley Audiobook at Amazon

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Frankenstein Published 200 Years Ago Today

200th Anniversary of a Literary Legend

Its first appearance was hardly a monster, though it still remains one of the most famous works of fiction ever published. “Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus” made its first appearance on the bookshelves of the Lackington Book Emporium on January 1, 1818. The book was published by the London firm of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor and & Jones. The publishing house changed partners over time, so assorted names sometimes appear, but Lackington’s book emporium, “The Temple of the Muses” on Finsbury Square was London’s largest bookstore.

Five hundred copies had been printed and the book issue had been supported by advertisements in the London broadsheets. The first printing was in three volumes. It did not sell as hoped and was soon offered with a discount and much of the printing run remained unsold.

The name of the author did not appear on the cover, but rumor had it that it was by Percy Bysshe Shelley, though many in the literary community were aware or had suspicion that it was a work by his wife, Mary Shelley. The Shelleys’ friends had known that Mary was writing a book, but Shelley had asked them not to tell the publishers as he was submitting it for consideration.

A great deal has been made of the anonymous publishing of Frankenstein, but it was not at all uncommon at the time for books to be published anonymously. Most of Percy’s own early public works had been published without his name, though many knew who had authored them. Was it a fear of the reaction to a woman authoring such a dark and challenging work, or the fear of reputation, that prevented listing the author? The Shelleys had already been the subject of scandal for three and half years since their elopement in 1814. Perhaps it was the intention to wait for reaction to the book before stepping from behind the curtain, with the fear that critics would take the easy opportunity to attack the author rather than judge the work on its merits.

The book did not sell as hoped. Critical reaction was mixed. Mary Shelley had received no advance for the book, and was to receive a share of the profits after the deduction of expenses. There was a dispute with Lackington over the amount of advertising for the release. Shelley blamed the poor sales on the advertisements appearing too late to support the publication date. Lackington agreed to re-launch the book in three months, with sufficient time for the advertising. The relaunch would be on March 11, 1818, which was considered the official publication date, the day before Percy and Mary Shelley would leave England for Italy. Percy would never return.

The author’s name as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley would not appear on the cover until 1823, on the single volume edition, published by G. and W. B. Whittaker. Mary’s authorship was well known by this time as the story had achieved a great notoriety, mostly through the story performed as an unauthorized stage play which was hugely popular. The first printed edition of the book to recognize Mary Shelley as the author would be on a French translation, as simply “Mme. Shelley” in 1821.

Critical Reception

Even without her name on it, it was no real secret that Mary Shelley was the author. Reviews appeared with reference to her. The Literary Panorama and National Register attacked the novel as a “feeble imitation of Mr. Godwin’s novels…produced by the daughter of a celebrated living novelist”. And perhaps as evidence to the feared reaction if Mary Shelley had been publicly named, another commented, “The writer of it is, we understand, a female; this is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the novel; but if our authoress can forget the gentleness of her sex, it is no reason why we should; and we shall therefore dismiss the novel without further comment.” Sir Walter Scott, who knew Percy Shelley and shared his usual publisher was kinder “upon the whole, the work impresses us with a high idea of the author’s original genius and happy power of expression”, though there is a suggestion that he was under the impression that Shelley was the author, while the Quarterly Review described it as “a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity”.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

Get Mary Shelley Memoirs Audiobook Free with Trail at Audible

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley Audiobook at Amazon

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Bride of Frankenstein Left at the Altar

bride_of_frankestein_lookThe she-mate of the creature of Mary Shelley’s imagining is not jilted, just put off for some soul(less) searching. The Universal Pictures version of the “Bride of Frankenstein” which had been moving forward on the production and release schedule of Universal Studios under the direction of Bill Condon, best known for recent Hollywood musicals (Chicago, Beauty and the Beast) has been pushed back for more work on the script with writer David Koepp (The Mummy, Angels & Demons).

The studio released a statement: “After thoughtful consideration, Universal Pictures and director Bill Condon have decided to postpone ‘Bride of Frankenstein”. None of us want to move too quickly to meet a release date when we know this special movie needs more time to come together.”

The lackluster box-office and critical reception for the Tom Cruise starrer “The Mummy”, the first film in Universal’s new “Dark Universe” idea to turn their horror movie library of the past into a modern franchise world like Disney’s Marvel comics superheroes and Warner Bros. DC Comics, finally getting some steam with “Wonderwoman”, has apparently made the studio a little gunshy, and the experiment in rebooting a true classic of horror is causing a few shivers up the spine in the executive suite.

Javier Bardem has been attached to play the monster of Frankenstein’s creation for some time, while Angelina Jolie has recently been in discussions to play the eponymous “Bride”, but she may be putting a sequel to “Malificent” for arch rival Disney in front of the schedule, perhaps allowing more time to rethink the script. In the original 1935 Universal Boris Karloff version of the story, directed by James Whale, which takes its concepts more from the later parts of the novel, left out of the first “Frankenstein”, the female mate the creature demands his creator make for him for a little companionship doesn’t appear until the last few minutes of the movie, and then just sort of freaks out like a mail order bride getting a look at her scary husband for the first time.

The bride story was always a bit of a flight of fancy. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein only briefly attempts to make a female mate, gathering a few “materials” for the gruesome task but doesn’t complete it, deciding that creating a franchise race of monsters was a rather horrific idea. But since the intent of the Dark Universe idea is to build a franchise world, in this rebooting of a pure movie story, the “Bride” in the title gets to be a major character, befitting a star for the role, though what sort of kitchen table discussions the creature couple might have is of curious conjecture.

Production of the film was set to start in February of 2018 in London, but the decision was made to hold pre-production to allow some time to sharpen the script for the vision Condon and Koepp have for the film, lest the audience have the same reaction to their creation as Elsa Lancaster’s creature bride did the first time around.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

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Do Robots Get Lawyers?

What Rights for Artificial Intelligence Persons?

c3po_ticketDid Mary Shelley see the future we couldn’t? For 200 years, the speculative novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley seemed to pose for science fiction the futurist dilemma of could a living being be created from parts of the dead. But as the two century anniversary of its publishing is upon us, it is the philosophical content of the story that is more prescient in its existential quandary. What rights does the creation have over the creator?

Futurist thinkers like Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk have warned about the risks to humankind posed by uncontrolled Artificial Intelligence. Movies like Terminator, I, Robot and 2001: A Space Odyssey, have posed visions what a future of self-aware digital intelligent beings might be like for humans. We have already given control of our houses heating and cooling and alarms to computers and will soon hand over the steering wheels of our cars to robots. A lot of these stories ask the question of what if the machines we create become a danger to us. But what if the machines we create ask ‘what if we are a danger to them’?

The European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs recently released a report with recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics on the subject of humankind’s entry into the world of advanced robotics and implementations of artificial intelligence. The premise behind the report is that with the rapid advance of the uses autonomous vehicles and other devices, where does liability and responsibility lie. If there is risk, danger or damage, who is held liable, but in this is posed the next question, what rights will AI beings have?

Can your Roomba complain if you abuse it? When does a machine become more than a machine in a legal context? Soon, artificially intelligent machines will be designed and built by other artificially intelligent machines, and when do they cease to be machines, but “beings”, a separate “race” subject to the laws which govern the interaction of beings. When does an artificial intelligence application APP become an Artificial Intelligent Person AIP?

The EU report doesn’t go quite this far, but it begins with a reference to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus”.

Introduction

  1.   whereas from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’s Monster to the classical myth of Pygmalion, through the story of Prague’s Golem to the robot of Karel Čapek, who coined the word, people have fantasized about the possibility of building intelligent machines, more often than not androids with human features;
  2.   whereas now that humankind stands on the threshold of an era when ever more sophisticated robots, bots, androids and other manifestations of artificial intelligence (“AI”) seem to be poised to unleash a new industrial revolution, which is likely to leave no stratum of society untouched, it is vitally important for the legislature to consider its legal and ethical implications and effects, without stifling innovation;
  3. whereas there is a need to create a generally accepted definition of robot and AI that is flexible and is not hindering innovation;

In Frankenstein, the creature confronts Victor with his own desire for a race of beings like himself, “create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.” In Frankenstein, the creature and his creator head off into the frozen north away from society, but implicit in the story is what is the responsibility of the creator to his creation, and the danger if the creation is more powerful and intent on its own needs over that of his creator. Here is the question of the death of God in the human mind, and the future humankind faces when the machines we create to make our lives easier become aware of their own needs over their creators.

The EU report is not exactly about the questions of the rights of artificial life, but forming a legal framework for human liability in building intelligent machines. If my drone kills your drone, who pays? But as in the debate over whether corporations have human rights, like political opinions and free speech, we will very soon be confronted with the question, does a silicon based algorithmic self-aware machine have the same rights as a carbon based biological being. And who will have the right to decide?

If anarchy is freedom without the force of law, and order is imposed by those who can enforce their vision of society, who will enforce the order of the AI future? Humans claim superiority and dominion because we speak to a God, free to make war and to slaughter and eat other corporal beings because we can contemplate what movie we want to go to, or whether we want dressing on our salad, and they can’t. But if the smart machines we build, like the creature of Mary Shelley’s waking dream, demand their own position of superiority and dominion based on the power of logic, how do we answer?

Thanks to Gary Goodwin and Canadian Lawyer Magazine article and EU Committee on Legal Affairs report.

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August 1817 – Frankenstein Rejected!

history_six_weeks_cover_fdThe Six Weeks Tour Begins

200 years ago in August of 1871 Percy Bysshe Shelley was submitting Frankenstein to publishers and Mary began working on her diary of the 1814 elopement – The History of the Six Weeks Tour.

On August 3rd 1817 Percy Shelley wrote to his publisher Charles Ollier from Marlow to ask him to publish Frankenstein.

“I send you with this letter a manuscript which has been consigned to my care by a friend in whom I feel considerable interest.  I do not know how far it consists with your plan of business to purchase the copyrights, or a certain interest in the copyrights of any works which should appear to promise success. I should certainly prefer that some such arrangement as this should be made if on consideration you could make any offer which I should feel justified to my friend in accepting. How far that can be you will be the better able to judge after a perusal of the MS. Perhaps you will do me the favour of communicating your decision to me as early as you conveniently can.”

Shelley also wrote on that day to his friend Leigh Hunt, who might be seeing Ollier to inform him not to mention that the book Hunt knew was written by his wife.

 “Bye-the-bye, I have sent an MS to Ollier concerning the true author of which I entreat you to be silent, if you should be asked any questions.”

Ollier apparently very quickly rejected the manuscript. Shelley possibly asked him for fast response.  Just 3 days later on August 6th 1817 Shelley added a postscript to a letter Mary wrote to Marianne Hunt from Marlow.

 “Poor Mary’s book came back with a refusal, which has put me rather in ill spirits. Does any kind friend of yours Marianne know any bookseller or has any influence with one? Any of those good tempered Robinsons? All these things are affairs of interest & preconception”

On August 8 Shelley ended a letter to Ollier with a remark about the book.

“I hope Frankenstein did not give you bad dreams.”

Mary’s diary in Marlow indicated that she had gone on to the writing of her journal of the 1814 trip into the first part of the History of a Six Weeks’ Tour with entries between August 6 to August 17, “write the journal of our travels” and “write journal of our first travels”.

On August 9 Mary’s half-brother Charles Clairmont wrote to Mary from France.

“You say nothing more of your novel. Do not neglect it on any account, and send me one of the first copies.”

On August 24 Mary made an entry in her diary at Marlow “A letter from Lackington” which apparently referred to a letter Shelley answered on August 22. Lackington’s interest in the novel may have been because they were then publishing other books on the occult and alchemy and felt Frankenstein might fit in the catalogue.

Publisher friend Thomas Hookham visited the Shelleys in Marlow from August 24 to 29 when he likely had a chance to read the Six Weeks Tour draft and apparently looked favorably on publishing, though he may have wanted to wait for the second half which would include the writings in letters of Percy Shelley from the 1816 Chamonix trip appended to it, probably to make it more marketable rather than just the hand of then unpublished Mary. Mary inquired about prospects for the book on September 28 in anticipation of its release. Hookham and Charles & James Ollier jointly published the History of the Six Weeks Tour on November 6, 1817 as Mary Shelley’s first published work.

Mary would revise it 31 years later in October of 1848, but the revisions would not published for another 200 years as the Secret Memoirs.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

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“Mary Shelley” to Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival

elle_fanning_as_mary_shelley_movieMary Shelley, the movie, (formerly Storm in the Stars) has been announced as the Saturday Night Gala Premiere film for the Toronto International Film Festival, held from September 7 to 17, 2017. Toronto is one of the most commercial festivals on the International circuit, launching films like the Academy Award winning “Room” and horror film “Cabin Fever”.

The film directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour and starring Elle Fanning as Mary Shelley was filmed on location in Dublin and County Wicklow, Ireland and Luxembourg, was shot in Ireland with funds from the Irish Film Board by Parallel Film, the same company behind Soairse Ronan’s’ “Brooklyn”.

Mary Shelley tells the story of teenage Mary dreaming of writing but yet finding inspiration when she meets Percy and is struck by love, but Percy is married with a child (actually it was two). Mary soon becomes pregnant with Percy’s child, a daughter who tragically dies. They are outcast by polite society and grieving for their child, they depart from London and Percy introduces Mary to Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati in Lake Geneva and the a stormy night ghost contest story gives birth to the Frankenstein Creature story. Mary struggles to find a publisher and must fight for her monster and her identity.

The film also stars Douglas Booth as Percy, Maisie Williams as Mary Scottish girlhood friend Isabel Baxter, Bel Powley as Claire, Joanne Froggatt and Stephen Dillane as the parents, and Tom Sturridge as the mad, bad Lord Byron. The original script is by Emma Jenson with Alan Maloney and Ruth Coad producing for Parallel Films with Amy Baer of Gidden Media who originated the project.

The story covers some of the same ground as “The Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley: The Romantics” but skips lightly over the 1814 elopement trip and jumps to 1816 to 1818.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

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Frankenstein Head Transplant

Is Mary Shelley’s nightmare vision about to become real?

frankenstein_head_transplant1A business magazine and a few others have reported a story about an upcoming attempt at the first human head transplant. An Italian neurosurgeon, Sergio Canavero, intends sometime in 2017 to attempt to sew the head of a living patient onto the body of a brain dead patient. The procedure is to be in China.

The Italian doctor explained his procedure in detail. The operation will entail cutting into the spinal cord injury and cutting away the segments of the damaged cord of the body donor, then replacing the missing portions with a spinal cord and head from a patient, then fusing the two portions together. The fusion would be accomplished using polyethylene glycol (PEG), essentially a bio glue. Then, electricity would be applied to the fused connection to encourage the cells to stimulate the fibers to merge, to complete the world’s first “full-body” transplant.

The doctor claims he had the idea of spinal fusion for a decade before reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel and got the light bulb idea of adding electricity to the procedure.

“Electricity has the power to speed up regrowth,” the doctor has said. “Bing bang bong you have the solution to spinal cord fusion”. So, like all fields of human endeavor, the next leap comes in the spark of inspiration, if only someone had thought of putting bolts in a patient’s neck and applying some lighting, you’d have the solution to reanimating dead tissue!

According to the Business Insider story, Dr. Canavero is calling his procedure HEAVEN, short for Head Anastomosis Venture. He claims to have succeeded in the process by reconnecting the spinal cord of a dog, then mice, splicing two heads on a laboratory mouse, performing this multiple times.

Dr. Canavero claims to have gotten the idea for using electricity only after reading the novel. But Mary Shelley’s novel never mentions electricity, or how it might be applied. She only mentions “some powerful engine”. The book is extraordinarily devoid of detail in the process. The idea it was electricity she was referring to, was later supposition, which may well have come from the ideas of using electricity to animate tissue of dead frogs, promoted by another Italian, Luigi Galvani. Though, for a bio neurosurgeon to only come to the idea of the role electrical energy plays in the human spinal cord, by reading a 200 year-old novel, seems, well, novel.

There is more than some passing evidence that this story may be a hoax, created as a viral marketing campaign for the release of 2015 video game, “Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain”, which caused an internet stir at the time, but the very real Dr. Canavero insists he is not associated with the game. If the transplant surgery is a success, then we can all read the book again to see what other secrets it might hold for modern science.

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