You’ve probably seen the green guy with bolts in his neck. Big, clunky boots. Groaning. Most people call him Frankenstein. But if you’re a bit of a nerd—or just paid attention in English class—you know that’s the doctor’s name, not the monster’s. More importantly, when we ask who wrote the original Frankenstein, the answer carries a lot more weight than just a name on a library card.
It was Mary Shelley.
She was nineteen. Honestly, think about that for a second. While most of us at nineteen were struggling with laundry or bad dating choices, she was busy inventing science fiction. She didn't just write a "spooky story." She fundamentally changed how we look at technology, birth, and the ego of man.
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The Ghost Story That Changed Everything
It started with rain. A lot of it.
The year was 1816. History remembers it as the "Year Without a Summer" because a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia (Mount Tambora) messed up the global climate. It was cold, dark, and gloomy in Switzerland. Mary was staying at Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva with some of the most chaotic literary figures of the era: her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, the "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" Lord Byron, and Byron’s physician, John Polidori.
They were bored. Stuck inside.
To kill the time, Byron suggested a contest. Everyone had to write a ghost story. Mary had writer's block for days. It’s kinda relatable, right? Everyone else is scribbling away, and she’s sitting there feeling the pressure. Then, she had a "waking dream." She saw a pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. She saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life.
That was it. That was the spark.
She didn't just write a quick sketch. She poured her grief into it. You have to understand that Mary Shelley's life was defined by death. Her mother, the famous feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, died days after Mary was born. Mary herself had already lost a premature baby. When she wrote about a man trying to create life without a woman—and the "offspring" being a miserable, abandoned wreck—she wasn't just being imaginative. She was writing her reality.
Why People Thought Percy Wrote It
When the book was first published in 1818, it didn’t have Mary’s name on it. It was anonymous.
Because of that, everyone assumed Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote it. People couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that a young woman could conceive of something so dark and philosophical. It seemed "too masculine." Even after she put her name on the 1823 edition, the rumors didn't stop.
Critics claimed Percy must have been the real mastermind. They pointed to the preface he wrote for the first edition. They looked at the edits he made in her original manuscript.
The Percy vs. Mary Debate
Let's get into the weeds here. If you look at the original manuscripts—which are actually held at the Bodleian Library at Oxford—you can see Percy’s handwriting in the margins. He definitely touched the text. He suggested better words here and there. He helped with the pacing.
But he didn't write it.
Basically, Percy acted as a high-level editor. Research by scholars like Charles E. Robinson, who spent years meticulously comparing the handwritings, proves that the narrative, the structure, and the core themes are 100% Mary's. Percy’s contributions actually made the prose a bit more formal and "flowery," sometimes even masking Mary's more direct, visceral voice.
Mary’s vision was about the failure of the parent. Percy’s typical themes usually leaned more toward radical politics and abstract beauty. The heart of Frankenstein is a domestic tragedy wrapped in a lab coat. That’s all Mary.
What the 1818 Original Actually Says
Most people have only read the 1831 version. That’s the "standard" one taught in schools. But if you want to know who wrote the original Frankenstein, you have to look at the 1818 text.
There are massive differences.
In the 1831 revision, Mary made Victor Frankenstein more of a victim of "fate." She made the book a bit more conservative, perhaps because life had beaten her down by then. In the original 1818 version, Victor is much more of a jerk. He has more agency. His choices are clearly his fault, not some "destiny" he couldn't avoid.
- The 1818 version: Gritty, philosophical, and politically charged.
- The 1831 version: More polished, "safer," and focused on the supernatural.
If you really want to see Mary Shelley’s raw genius, read the 1818 original. It’s leaner. It’s meaner. It feels more modern because it refuses to give the characters an easy out.
The Monster Isn't What You Think
In the movies, the monster is a bumbling oaf. He can barely speak.
In Mary’s book? He’s a freaking philosopher. He learns to read by eavesdropping on people reading Paradise Lost and Plutarch’s Lives. He’s articulate. He’s heartbroken. He argues with Victor about the duties of a creator to his creation.
"I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel," he tells Victor.
That line alone shows the depth Mary was working with. She wasn't writing a monster movie; she was writing a treatise on what happens when society rejects someone based on their appearance. She was exploring the "blank slate" theory of John Locke—the idea that we are born neutral and shaped by our environment. The monster starts out kind. He only becomes a killer because every single human he meets tries to kill him first.
The Legacy of a Teenage Girl
It’s easy to forget how radical this was for the time.
Women wrote "romance" or "domestic fiction." They didn't write about charnel houses, electricity (Galvanism), and the moral vacuum of scientific discovery. By asking who wrote the original Frankenstein, we are really asking how a teenager managed to predict the anxieties of the 21st century.
Think about AI. Think about gene editing.
We are still asking the same questions Mary Shelley asked in 1816. Can we control what we create? Do we have a moral obligation to our technology? What happens when the "tool" develops a soul?
She didn't just write a book; she created a myth.
Actionable Insights for the Curious Reader
If you're looking to dive deeper into the world of the "real" Frankenstein, don't just watch the old black-and-white movies. They’re classics, sure, but they miss the point of the book.
Read the 1818 Edition
Search specifically for the 1818 text. Many modern publishers, like Penguin Classics, offer this version. It’s the closest you’ll get to Mary’s original, unfiltered vision before the world (and Percy) polished it.
Visit the Bodleian Digital Archives
You can actually see the digitized pages of Mary’s original notebooks online. It’s haunting to see her cross out words and rewrite sentences. It humanizes her. It takes her off the pedestal of "Great Author" and shows her as a working writer.
Check out "Romantic Outlaws" by Charlotte Gordon
If you want the full context of her life, this is the biography to read. It tells the story of Mary Shelley and her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, in alternating chapters. It’s the best way to understand the "motherless" themes that haunt the novel.
Watch the 2017 "Mary Shelley" Film
While Hollywood takes some liberties, the movie starring Elle Fanning gives a great atmospheric look at that rainy summer in Switzerland. It helps visualize just how young and isolated she really was during the writing process.
Understanding who wrote the original Frankenstein means acknowledging that great art often comes from a place of deep, personal pain. Mary Shelley took her loneliness, her grief, and her fear of the burgeoning industrial world and turned it into a creature that will likely live forever.
Victor Frankenstein failed his creation by running away. We shouldn't fail the author by forgetting who she really was: a brilliant, grieving, radical woman who saw the future before it even arrived.