The eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883 was a real whooper-do, killing some 40,000 people and creating one of the largest tsunamis on record. But it pales compared to the eruption of Tambora, also in Indonesia, in 1815. The eruption of Tambora lofted some 38 cubic miles of matter into the upper atmosphere, which drifted around the world and engendered "the year without a summer" in 1816, when a June snow storm dumped six to twelve inches (15 to 30 centimeters) on northern New England and snow drifts of two feet (60 centimeters) in the ville de Quebec. It also effect farm crops around the world.

In 1816, a small group of writers and poets planned to spend a pleasant summer romping and playing in the meadows in Switzerland. The group included Lord Byron, his friend John Polidori, Percy Shelley, and his mistress, later his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. But that summer it rained incessantly.

Housebound and bored out of their sconces, they took turns reading to each other from a book of ghost stories. Then John Polidori suggested that they try their hands at writing ghost or horror stories of their own.

Young (18 years old) Mary Godwin (later, Mary Shelley) had been reading some material about experiments with "galvanism" and how, among other things, if one applied an electric current to a dead frog, its legs would jump. Between her speculations about this, and remembering a tour of the Frankenstein Castle on the Rhine River they had taken on their way to Switzerland, where years before an alchemist had conducted bizarre experiments, one night she had a strange dream. The following morning she began writing her story.

Later, she polished it up, and it was published in 1820 under the name Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus.

The protagonist—sort of—is Victor Frankenstein, who assembled the "creature" from spare parts gathered from morgues and hospitals (not grave robbing), and applied "galvanism" to it, imbuing it with life. Then he collapses in exhaustion. When he awakes the following morning, the "creature" is no longer in his laboratory. Gone!

Some of the most beautiful, lyrical writing I have ever read comes when, later, the "creature" describes his wakening moments as he wanders in the forest and sees flowers and hears birds sing for the first time, and feels an indescribable joy at simply being alive.   

Then, he encounters humans!   The creature is eight feet tall, and despite Dr. Frankenstein's attempts at careful assembly, things have "slumped" a bit.

Contrary to popular belief, the protagonist of the story is the creature, who starts out all wonder and love. The real villain of the story is Victor Frankenstein, who "begets," then horrified by his "offspring," forsakes. Then later, he makes a promise to the creature, then betrays him.

The movies are interesting, but none of them has really done justice to the story. Get a copy of the book and read it. It's amazing how a book can be a beautiful, heart-rending story, and at the same time have all the elements of a Gothic horror story.

Sorry about the thread drift, but you can never tell what might come gushing out of a volcano!

Don Firth

P. S. Science fiction writer Brian Aldiss credits Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with being the first genuine science fiction novel. Earlier stories rest on fantasy elements, but Frankenstein was based on actual scientific experiments at the time ("galvanism"), then extrapolating from there.