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Abstract:

The article is devoted to the creation of Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” which has been enjoying scholars’ attention in various fields of knowledge for more than 200 years. This work will evaluate the degree of influence popular science fiction books, read by the great English poets, Shelley and Byron, as well as Mary Shelley herself and her sister Claire Clairmont, had on the plot development of the novel in question (Villa Diodati, 1816, Switzerland). In the process of research, it was revealed how a nineteen-year-old woman could create such a complex work, and which scientists, besides Erasmus Darwin, served as prototypes of the protagonist. It is argued that such a highly intellectual author as Mary Shelley was aware of the latest achievements of European science of her time as well as of those positive-negative factors of it that were inevitably brought to the life of society. The author of the article focuses on the fact that Mary Shelley’s youthful passion for gothic novels affected themes, motifs and the system of images of her “Frankenstein”. In addition, this paper examines the functioning features of an artificial body topos in Peter Ackroyd’s novel “The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein” (2008). If Mary Shelley did not describe in detail the process of inanimate matter resuscitation, then in “The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein” Peter Ackroyd paid close attention to this when depicting everyday activities of a scientist who is unable to curb his own pride and envy of others’ success.