Book Riot – The Podcast

Episode: The Seventeen Year-Old Who Invented Science Fiction

Date: October 17, 2025
Hosts: Jeff O’Neal & Rebecca Schinsky

Overview of the Episode

This engaging episode revisits a special "Annotated"-style segment exploring the genesis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein—its creation by a 17-year-old who not only birthed a literary monster but effectively invented the genre of science fiction. Set against the backdrop of an infamous summer gathering by Lake Geneva in 1816, the hosts tell the story of teenage Mary Godwin (later Mary Shelley), the scandalous personalities surrounding her, and the scientific obsessions that sparked the modern Prometheus.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Setting the Stage: The Year Without a Summer

• [02:12] The episode opens with atmospheric sound effects (rain, wolves) setting the scene for June 1816 on Lake Geneva.
• Context: A volcanic eruption caused a “year without summer,” forcing the group indoors and inspiring a legendary ghost story challenge.

The Cast at Lake Geneva

• [08:59] The five key figures:
  • Lord Byron: Notorious poet and heartthrob.
  • John Polidori: Byron’s doctor, later author of The Vampyre.
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley: Aspiring poet, love interest of Mary.
  • Mary Godwin (Shelley): Daughter of famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, future author of Frankenstein.
  • Jane Claremont: Mary’s half-sister, famed for her beauty and machinations to orchestrate the gathering.
• Machinations and Affairs: Jane’s bold letters to Byron—"If I came around, could you keep it on the down low?" ([09:22] Rebecca)

Mary Shelley’s Influences and Heritage

• Mary’s reverence for her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft—“This is the most flattering thing anyone could say to me.” ([12:27], Mary, voice actor)
• Literary and Romantic Background:
  • Mary and Percy’s relationship flourished on shared ideals and ambition.
  • The Romantics’ quest for authentic, unfettered lives—"They schemed to run away together and read poetry and make love..." ([12:54] Jeff)

Science, Tragedy, and Inspiration

• Scientific Fads of the Day: Percy's fascination with electricity and “galvanism” (reanimation of dead tissue via electricity).
  • “What a mighty instrument would electricity be in the hands who knew how to wield it...” ([13:56] Jeff)
• Personal Darkness: Mary’s deep sense of loss (mother’s death in childbirth, her own child’s death) shapes her worldview.
  • "Dreamed that my little baby came to life again... I awake and find no baby. I think about that little thing all day." ([16:12], Mary, voice actor)
• The group’s ghost story readings (from Phantasmagoria) lead to Byron’s writing challenge.

The Birth of Frankenstein

• Mary’s Writer’s Block and Breakthrough:
  • “Have you thought of a story? I was asked each morning. And each morning I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative.” ([21:15], Mary, voice actor)
  • Her idea draws directly from dinner discussions on electricity and life: “Perhaps a corpse could be reanimated. Galvanism had given token to such things...” ([21:30], Mary, voice actor)
• The Moment of Inspiration:
  • “I placed my head on the pillow. I did not sleep. My imagination unbidden possessed and guided me... I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.” ([21:47], Mary, voice actor)

Percy Shelley’s Crucial Support

• Percy’s encouragement turns Mary’s shivery vision into a full novel:
  • She gives him “carte blanche to make what alterations you will” in the drafts ([22:52], Mary, voice actor).
• Anonymity and Attribution:
  • The novel’s initial release was anonymous, leading many to suspect Percy was the author, but “the book is Mary’s.” ([23:06] Jeff)
• Creative Partnership: Their relationship is both romantic and intellectually collaborative.
  • “For eight years I communicated with unlimited freedom with one whose genius awakened and guided my thoughts...” ([23:44], Mary, voice actor)

The Legacy: Inventing Science Fiction

• Frankenstein’s narrative—mad science rather than ghosts—singlehandedly invents a new genre.
• “A new way to tell stories that didn’t rely on ghosts and magic, instead speculating on what science might actually make possible and what that might mean for humanity.” ([24:10] Rebecca)
• The genre’s legacy is “stories of science run amok”—from The Terminator to Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy.

Lasting Questions Raised by Shelley

• “What will we do if something we’ve made turns against us? What happens when what we create escapes our control?... The biggest question isn’t what if our efforts fail, but what if they succeed?” ([25:20] Jeff)
• “Frightful must it be, for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the creator of the world…” ([25:43], Mary, voice actor)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Opening flourish: “It was, and this is true, a dark and stormy night. In fact, in the history of dark and stormy nights, this was one of the darkest and stormiest."
  — Jeff O’Neill ([02:12])
• “Dad’s not watching and I don’t have a boyfriend. If I came around, could you keep it on the down low?”
  — Rebecca, paraphrasing Jane Claremont ([09:33])
• “What I am learning here is that star-f***ing is a lot older than I thought.”
  — Jeff O’Neill ([11:46])
• “I busied myself to think of a story, one which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awake thrilling horror. One to make readers dread to look around, curdle the blood and quicken the beating of the heart.”
  — Mary Shelley (voice actor) ([20:55])
• “Frankenstein was published anonymously at first, and Percy’s known interest in the subject and the prominence of his name caused some to speculate that he in fact wrote the novel. And while his fingerprints are there, the book is Mary’s.”
  — Jeff O’Neill ([23:06])
• “So why has it endured? Some of it is the elegant simplicity of the setup: mad scientist brings dead to life, what happens next?”
  — Rebecca Schinsky ([24:10])
• “She was the first to capture the evolving world in literature, changing the fantastical ‘what if’ questions of Gothic horror novels into a more scientifically grounded ‘what now?’”
  — Rebecca Schinsky ([24:58])
• “Frightful must it be, for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the creator of the world...”
  — Mary Shelley (voice actor) ([25:43])

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:12] – Setting the gothic stage of Lake Geneva, 1816
• [08:59] – Introduction of the cast and their relationships
• [12:27] – Mary’s connection to her mother, Wollstonecraft
• [13:56] – The scientific obsessions (galvanism, electricity)
• [16:12] – Mary’s personal loss and darkness: “I awake and find no baby...”
• [16:57] – Reading Phantasmagoria and launching the story contest
• [20:55] – Mary struggles to write, finds her spark
• [21:47] – The famous waking ‘dream’ of Victor Frankenstein
• [22:52] – Percy's pivotal editorial and emotional support
• [23:44] – The depth of Percy and Mary’s creative partnership
• [24:10] – The birth of science fiction as a genre
• [25:43] – Iconic warning about “mocking the stupendous mechanism of the creator”

Conclusion

This episode is both a dramatic retelling and insightful analysis of how a teenage Mary Shelley, surrounded by notorious poets and inspired by both personal pain and scientific advances, wrote Frankenstein. The Book Riot team highlights how Shelley transformed the “what if?” of ghost stories into the speculative “what now?” of science fiction, a genre she essentially invented, and how her creation and its anxieties about creation remain ever-relevant.

Further Reading:

• Miranda Seymour’s Mary Shelley biography
• Frankenstein (1818), Mary Shelley

For more, check out the show notes and recommendations in the episode.