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Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein
Anne Eekhout
HarperVia
October 2023
On Sale: October 3, 2023
320 pages
ISBN: 0063256746
EAN: 9780063256743
Kindle: B0BQMWYPV8
Hardcover / e-Book
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Literature and Fiction Literary | Historical | LGBTQ
An intensely gripping reimagining of Mary
Shelley’s youth, vividly exploring innocence, young
love, gothic mystery and the roots of her literary
masterpiece, Frankenstein.
Switzerland, 1816. A volcanic eruption in
Indonesia envelopes the whole of Europe in ash and cloud.
Amid this “year without a summer,” eighteen-
year-old Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley
arrive at Lake Geneva to visit Lord Byron and his companion
John Polidori. Anguished by the recent loss of her child,
Mary spends her days in strife. But come nightfall, the
friends while away rainy wine-soaked evenings gathered
around the fireplace, exchanging stories. One famous
evening, Byron issues a challenge to write the best ghost
story. Contemplating what to write, Mary recalls another
summer, when she was fourteen…
Scotland, 1812. A guest of the Baxter
family, Mary arrives in Dundee, befriending young Isabella
Baxter. The girls soon spend hours together wandering
through fields and forests, concocting tales about mythical
Scottish creatures, ghosts and monsters roaming the
lowlands. As their bond deepens, Mary and Isabella’s
feelings for each other intensify. But someone has been
watching them—the charismatic and vaguely sinister Mr.
Booth, Isabella's older brother-in-law, who may not be as
benevolent as he purports to be…
With gripping mastery and verve, Anne Eekhout brings to
life a defining moment in Mary Shelley’s youth: the
creative wellspring for one of the most original, thrilling,
and timeless pieces of literature ever written. Provocative,
wonderfully atmospheric and pulsing with emotion,
Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a
hypnotic ode to the power of imagination.
Translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson
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