A NIGHTMARE WAKES Is a Baffling Ode to Mary Shelley
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The story of how Mary Shelley’s pioneering science-fiction novel
Frankenstein came to be written is as famous as the book itself. First conceived in 1816 the famous “year without summer“ it was the product of a contest of sorts. Mary, who was in Switzerland with her poet lover Percy Shelley, step-sister Claire Clairmont, doctor John William Polidori, and Lord Byron, came up with the story on a whim. The group, stuck indoors due to incessant rain, challenged one another to invent frightening ghost stories. Inspired by the great minds of her Romantic-era companions, Mary dreamt up a story that would become