Follow the travels of Mary Shelley, Percy Shelly and Lord Byron in Switzerland
Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva
Most people casually familiar with Frankenstein who have not read the novel, usually seem to get the idea that the creator of the monster was German and the events happened there. This mostly comes from the movie and the name, with lots of Bavarian costumed villagers carrying pitchforks on a Hollywood backlot. Though for anyone truly familiar with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel of “Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus” know that Victor Frankenstein was from Geneva, Switzerland, and many events of the story take place in and around the Lake Geneva region of southern Switzerland. And curiously, though the name is German in origin, Geneva is in French speaking Switzerland, so the added confusion.
Many fans of the story are familiar a bit with the story of the beginnings of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel of Frankenstein, related in a later edition introduction to the book, telling of the summer of 1816, when Mary Godwin, Percy Byssche Shelley, and Lord Byron, along with travelling companions John Polidori and Claire Clairmont gathered on the shores of Lake Geneva at a villa rented by Byron, and the contest to tell a scare story, but there is far more to discover in Switzerland than a single rental villa from long ago.
Those fascinated with the origins of the most famous monster story and the inspirations of the Romantics, the authors of the late 18th and early 19th Century who came to Switzerland to discover the still pristine wonders, might follow the clues left buried in the pages. Many of the passages in the Frankenstein novel are taken almost directly from the journals of the Shelleys’ travels.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Birth House Geneva
A tour to follow the romantics might start in Geneva. The founders of the Romanticism movement in English literature were inspired by Genevan author Jean-Jacques Rousseau whose “Julie, or The New Heloise” based on a then “modern” retelling of the French legend of Abelard and Heloise, which Rousseau sets in scenes around Lake Geneva, attracted the likes of Byron and the Shelleys.
The Villa Diodati in the upscale Cologny suburb of Geneva where Byron stayed and the ghost story contest legend originated is not open to tourists, but is a private residence. But nearby, is the Bodmer Library, with a collection of rare books and manuscripts, which would have fascinated the Shelleys. While Mary and Claire stayed behind (Mary had brought her infant son and Claire was pregnant) Byron and Percy Shelley sailed a boat around the lake, visiting the castle of the Chateau Chillon and sites around Montreux (Clarens) and Vevey. Just as they did, you can visit the most famous castle in Switzerland and taste the wines of the 500 year old vineyards of the Lavaux Region.
Chateau Chillon Lake Geneva
Byron and Shelley stopped at Ouchy in Lausanne where now the Lake Geneva Cruise boats depart for cruises of beautiful Lake Leman. Byron began his story of the Prisoner of Chillon while they stayed in the Hotel d’Angleterre in Ouchy, now commemorated with a plaque and a partner hotel of the neighboring Beau Rivage Palace Hotel. The Shelleys stayed at the Hotel d’Angleterre in Geneva (Secheron) before meeting up with Byron. The original of that one is gone, but an historic luxury hotel of the same name, for its English tourist visitors on the Grand Tour, remains about a block from where the original stood. Lord Byron also paid several visits to the literary salons of Madame de Stael, a nemesis of Napoleon and a renowned author herself, at her Chateau Coppet, which is open to the public.
Mary Shelley took many of the inspirations for the settings of her novel from the environs of Geneva. The murder of Victor Frankenstein’s son, William, by the monster he created she set on the Plaine de Plainpalais, where an art statue of the creature now stands, affectionately named “Frankie”. She chose this location because of its connection to Rousseau, when even then a monument to him was located there for its part in the uprising of the common man. The Frankenstein family house she set within the town of Belrive (Collogne-Bellerive), on the south shore of the lake, a short distance from where the Shelleys’ rented a house to be near Lord Byron’s rental at Villa Diodati in Cologny.
“It was completely dark when I arrived in the environs of Geneva; the gates of the town were already shut; and I was obliged to pass the night at Secheron, a village at the distance of half a league from the city. The sky was serene; and, as I was unable to rest, I resolved to visit the spot where my poor William had been murdered. As I could not pass through the town, I was obliged to cross the lake in a boat to arrive at Plainpalais. During this short voyage I saw the lightning playing on the summit of Mont Blanc in the most beautiful figures… the thunder burst with a terrific crash over my head. It was echoed from Saleve, the Juras, and the Alps of Savoy…” Frankenstein
She wrote of the creature in the snowy mountains of the Mont Blanc range and Chamonix, where the creature hid with a local village farm family and Victor Frankenstein would search for his creation.
“I passed the bridge of Pelissier, where the ravine, which the river forms, opened before me, and I began to ascend the mountain that overhangs it. Soon after, I entered the valley of Chamounix.” Frankenstein
Geneva is only a possible beginning of a tour. Less known, is the journey Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley made in 1814 when they eloped from London, when Mary was only 16, and ran away to Paris with Mary’s step-sister Claire Clairmont, then traveled across France to Switzerland, then up the Rhine River. This journey of the romantic tour of Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley is told in “The Frankenstein Diaries: The Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley“.
The threesome entered Switzerland from France and crossed the Jura mountains to Neuchatel (Neufchatel), where they stayed at a hotel in approximately the location of today’s Beau Rivage Neuchatel, with the same lake views the romantic travelers would have seen. Railways did not exist in 1814 and 1816, so rather than tour Switzerland by foot or horse coach, today it’s easy to visit these Switzerland sites by rail with a Swiss Pass Rail Pass. From Geneva, Neuchatel is a quick trip. Cruise the three lakes, and visit the watch-making district of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Jura Mountains.
Lake Uri at Brunnen
From Neuchatel, their path took them to Lucerne, passing through Solothurn, for a look at the cathedral. It was new at the time and they found the neo-classic formal architecture, with its crisp white marble, a bit unappealing. From Lucerne they took a boat to Brunnen where Lake Lucerne meets Lake Uri. They were fascinated by the story of William Tell and his part in the founding of Switzerland, and today you can take the Wilhelm Tell Express cruise and train route. One might pause to wonder, then, why Victor Frankenstein’s son was named William.
“I have seen the most beautiful scenes of my own country; I have visited the lakes of Lucerne and Uri, where the snowy mountains descend almost perpendicularly to the water, casting black and impenetrable shades, which would cause a gloomy and mournful appearance were it not for the most verdant islands… I have seen this lake agitated by a tempest, when the wind tore up whirlwinds of water and gave you an idea of what the water-spout must be on the great ocean; and the waves dash with fury the base of the mountain, where the priest and his mistress were overwhelmed by an avalanche and where their dying voices are still said to be heard amid the pauses of the nightly wind; I have seen the mountains of La Valais, and the Pays de Vaud; but this country, Victor, pleases me more than all those wonders…” Frankenstein
The house where they stayed on Lake Lucerne is long gone, but Brunnen, or just down the shore, Vitznau or Weggis, offer a wonderful place to stop and explore the Lake Lucerne Riviera with the walking trails of the mountains Mary Shelley described, or the historic mountain train to Mt Rigi which would come later. When their money ran out, they took a boat back to Lucerne, admiring the chapel bridge and staying at a hotel, possibly the Wilden Mann which still exists. Then, by boat they followed the Reuss River to the Rhine, crossing the falls and on to Basel. Explore the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen, and explore the very historic city of Basel, before getting on a plane or train back to France or continue to Germany where they traveled the Rhine River past the Castle of Frankenstein.
“We had agreed to descend the Rhine in a boat from Strasbourg to Rotterdam, whence we might take shipping for London. During this voyage we passed many willowy islands and saw several beautiful towns. We stayed a day at Mannheim, and on the fifth from our departure from Strasbourg, arrived at Mainz. The course of the Rhine below Mainz becomes much more picturesque. The river descends rapidly and winds between hills, not high, but steep, and of beautiful forms. We saw many ruined castles standing on the edges of precipices, surrounded by black woods, high and inaccessible. This part of the Rhine, indeed, presents a singularly variegated landscape. In one spot you view rugged hills, ruined castles overlooking tremendous precipices, with the dark Rhine rushing beneath; and on the sudden turn of a promontory, flourishing vineyards with green sloping banks and a meandering river and populous towns occupy the scene…” Frankenstein
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TCM cable channel Turner Classic Movies recently ran a Boris Karloff day and I had a chance to watch the 1931 Frankenstein and the 1934 Bride of Frankenstein shot four years later, both directed by James Whale. The difference between the two movies was quite fascinating. Boris Karloff had gone in the credits from a “?” to simply the one name KARLOFF by the send movie, having become a household icon in between. The original film deviated so far from the original book to be almost unrecognizable, and oddly switched Victor to Henry Frankenstein and Victor’s friend from the book to Victor in the movie. The Bride of Frankenstein went back to the book to borrow more, and famously dramatized the introduction with Byron and Percy Shelley in Geneva.
The Frankenstein Village set had changed quite a bit as well. In the original it was a Bavarian style village with the Frankenstein family house a high ceiling mansion in the middle of the village with an entrance looking out on the street. In the Bride of Frankenstein, the town had turned into a larger walled castle city with a gate and drawbridge. In the first movie, the science lab was in a mill tower on a hill, in the second, a castle tower as part of the city complex. Both films were shot on the Universal studio back lot.
The 1931 Frankenstein village set was actually built for the World War I epic “All Quiet on the Western Front” shot by Lewis Milestone a year earlier in 1930, for where the soldiers left home to the fervor of marching bands, before the devastations of war. The archways and street scenes can be recognized between the two films, with the archway into town shot from different angles. Some small parts of the Old Europe called the Court of Miracles set on the Universal backlot is still there but much of the set areas were burned in a fire at the studio some years ago. A few remnants called Little Europe still remain on the Universal Studio Tour.
The stored laboratory sets and equipment were famously used again in Mel Brook’s “Young Frankenstein” and some of those props still remain in the Universal props shop. The lake where the little girl scene was filmed is out in Agoura about 40 minutes from Universal out the 101 highway. Malibu Lake is now surrounded by houses and a golf course. The Paramount Movie Ranch with its much used western town set is about five minutes away from the lake, and is now actually a National Park as part of the Santa Monica Mountain Recreation Area, but the western sets, used for countless movies and TV shows also recently burned in a wild fire.