The first time I read ‘Frankenstein,’ I immediately read it again. I had nightmares for nights on end. Most frightening book I’ve ever read, but so fascinating I couldn’t stop reading it. The ‘monster’ was actually brilliant, misunderstood. As he roamed about murdering for revenge, he claimed that he would stop if only he could find just one person who lived up to the nobility of humanity envisioned in the books he taught himself to read: Milton, Plutarch, Goethe.

In the Snopes entry referenced, writer Charlotte Gordon posits Shelley’s monster was Mary Shelley herself. A brilliant creature made into a monster by the society of her era.

In that light, ‘Frankenstein,’ was Mary Shelley’s autobiography.