when did mary shelley write frankenstein what were the circumstances?
"In 1817 they settled at Marlow-on-Thames and Mary turned "Frankenstein" into a novel, consulting Davy's chemistry lectures to give authenticity to her story about a scientist who creates life and then cannot control the creature he has made."
entailment
 Early in the summer of 1817 , Mary Shelley finished Frankenstein , which was published anonymously in January 1818 . Reviewers and readers assumed that Percy Shelley was the author , since the book was published with his preface and dedicated to his political hero William Godwin . At Marlow , Mary edited the joint journal of the group 's 1814 Continental journey , adding material written in Switzerland in 1816 , along with Percy 's poem " Mont Blanc " . The result was the History of a Six Weeks ' Tour , published in November 1817 . That autumn , Percy Shelley often lived away from home in London to evade creditors . The threat of a debtor 's prison , combined with their ill health and fears of losing custody of their children , contributed to the couple 's decision to leave England for Italy on 12 March 1818 , taking Claire Clairmont and Alba with them . They had no intention of returning . 

entailment
 Since Frankenstein was published anonymously in 1818 , readers and critics argued over its origins and the contributions of the two Shelleys to the book . There are differences in the 1818 , 1823 , and 1831 editions , and Mary Shelley wrote , " I certainly did not owe the suggestion of one incident , nor scarcely of one train of feeling , to my husband , and yet but for his incitement , it would never have taken the form in which it was presented to the world . " She wrote that the preface to the first edition was Percy 's work " as far as I can recollect . " James Rieger concluded Percy 's " assistance at every point in the book 's manufacture was so extensive that one hardly knows whether to regard him as editor or minor collaborator " , while Anne K. Mellor later argued Percy only " made many technical corrections and several times clarified the narrative and thematic continuity of the text . " 

entailment
 She began writing what she assumed would be a short story . With Percy Shelley 's encouragement , she expanded this tale into her first novel , Frankenstein : or , The Modern Prometheus , published in 1818 . She later described that summer in Switzerland as the moment " when I first stepped out from childhood into life " . The story has been fictionalised several times and formed the basis for a number of films . 

entailment
 In May 1816 , Mary Godwin , Percy Shelley , and their second child travelled to Geneva with Claire Clairmont . They spent the summer months with the Romantic poet Lord Byron , but , as Mary Shelley later wrote of the year without a summer , " [ i ] t proved a wet , ungenial summer and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house " . The group spent their time writing , boating on Lake Geneva , and talking late into the night . Sitting around a log fire at Byron 's villa , the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories , prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale . Mary Godwin began writing what she assumed would be a short story , but with Percy Shelley 's encouragement and collaboration , she expanded this tale into her first novel , Frankenstein : or , The Modern Prometheus . 

contradiction
 Shelley 's first travel narrative and first published work , History of a Six Weeks ' Tour , was published anonymously and was co @-@ written with her husband . Rambles , on the other hand , places Mary Shelley at the centre of the narrative . It tells the story of " the recovery of paradise " and the fears of a mother . Her maternal sorrow is generalised . For example , in discussing the death of her daughter in 1818 , she writes : " I was agitated again by emotions — by passions — and those the deepest a woman 's heart can harbour — a dread to see her child even at that instant expire — which then occupied me " . Connecting these deep feelings to writings by Shakespeare , Wordsworth , Coleridge , and Thomas Holcroft , she argues that intense emotion and environment are intertwined , contending that maternal grief is sublime . 
