The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley's Masterpiece - Softcover

Montillo, Roseanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006202583X ISBN 13: 9780062025838

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2013

Synopsis

The Lady and Her Monsters by Roseanne Motillo brings to life the fascinating times, startling science, and real-life horrors behind Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece, Frankenstein.

Montillo recounts how—at the intersection of the Romantic Age and the Industrial Revolution—Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein was inspired by actual scientists of the period: curious and daring iconoclasts who were obsessed with the inner workings of the human body and how it might be reanimated after death.

With true-life tales of grave robbers, ghoulish experiments, and the ultimate in macabre research—human reanimation—The Lady and Her Monsters is a brilliant exploration of the creation of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s horror classic.

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Review:

A Look Inside The Lady and Her Monsters

From Giovanni Aldini's text, Essai theoretique experimental sur le galvanism, depicting two decapitated cadavers and his efforts to restore movements to them. Mrs. Docherty was suffocated and her body sold to Dr. Knox for dissection. The killers used the method known as 'burking' - plying their victim with drink then suffocating her. Mrs. Docherty was their last victim. In the 18th century, the river provided a great divide between social classes in London. It was also from one of its bridges that Mary Wollstonecraft jumped trying to commit suicide. Frankenstein Observing the first stirring of his creature -- This is a print from the 1831 edition.

From the Back Cover:

Exploring the frightful milieu in which Frankenstein was written, Roseanne Montillo recounts how Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein mirrored actual scientists of the period. Montillo paints a rich portrait of Shelley and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their contemporaries, as well as their friend Lord Byron. Intellectually curious, they were artists, poets, and philosophers, united in captivation with the occultists and the daring scientists risking their reputations and their immortal souls to advance our understanding of human anatomy and medicine.

Juxtaposing monstrous mechanization and rising industrialism with the sublime beauty and decadence of the legendary Romantics who defined the age, Montillo takes us into a world where poets become legends in salons and boudoirs; where fame-hungry "doctors" conduct shocking performances for rabid, wide-eyed audiences; and where maniacal body snatchers secretly toil in castle dungeons.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 006202583X
• ISBN 13: 9780062025838
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336