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Home , Claire Clairmont, Dick Briefer, Horace Walpole, Mary Jane Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Queen Mab (poem)

It’s Alive! at 200

FRANKENSTEIN TIMELINE, 1600–1799

1667 1669 publishes Hennig Brand discovers Paradise Lost, an phosphorus through his important text in the experiments in alchemy. 1600 Creature's intellectual 1699 development.

1700 1749

1774

1752 claims to discover oxygen (Carl Wilhelm Scheele and 's kite made similar experiment demonstrates that 1756 1765 discoveries around the same time). lightning is electricity, a crucial is born. Horace Walpole publishes The Scientists like , one of the step in the development of the Castle of : A Gothic Story, inventors of the air pump, had already lightning rod. initiating the Gothic style of demonstrated that air contained an As the death penalty is 1759 literary narrative. element necessary to the preservation applied more frequently for of life. more minor crimes, an act is born. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe of Parliament allows judges 1768 publishes The Sorrows of Young Werther, to order the dissection of Mary Jane de Vial, who will later be an important text in the Creature's prisoners after execution. known as Mary Jane Clairmont and intellectual development and an then , is born. important influence on 1750 Romantic literature. 1774

1790 1796

Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Matthew Gregory Lewis publishes Vindication of the Rights of Men. The Monk. , the scientist who Mary Wollstonecraft publishes Letters gave his name to galvanism, Written During a Brief Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. notices that a dead frog's legs can be made to twitch if exposed to 1797 electricity. William Godwin and Mary 1791 Wollstonecraft marry. Constantin François de Mary Godwin (later Shelley) is born. Chassebœuf, comte de Volney, publishes Les Ruines, ou Mary Wollstonecraft dies of a Méditations sur les révolutions des puerperal fever, an infection related empires, known in English as to childbirth. Ruins of Empire—an important text in the Creature's intellectual 1798 development. Clara Mary Jane Clairmont, later 1792 known as , is born. is born. Memoirs 1782 William Godwin publishes Mary Wollstonecraft publishes of the Author of A Vindication of the 's The is A Vindication of the Rights of Rights of Woman. Its revelations about first exhibited. Woman. Mary Wollstonecraft scandalize her 1788 posthumous reputation. 1793 1783 George Gordon, Lord , is born in . William Godwin publishes An 1799 Joseph-Michael and Jacques- Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. The Royal Institution is founded in 1776 Étienne de Montgolfier publicly demonstrate the hot 1789 1794 London. The Continental Congress air balloon for the first time. The Rosetta Stone is discovered by A crowd storms the Bastille, an publishes The declares the independence of Hot air balloons are used as Mysteries of Udolpho. French soldiers in Egypt. the of America a means of transportation in infamous French prison, in one from England. 's futuristic of the most iconic events of the William Godwin publishes Caleb Humphry Davy discovers that nitrous (1826). . Williams, a suspenseful novel oxide—known as laughing gas for its that explores the intoxicating properties—can render a expressed in his Enquiry person unconscious after long-term Concerning Political Justice. exposure. The gas, however, 1775 is not used as ananesthetic 1799 for another 40 years.

It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200 | The Morgan Library & Museum It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200

FRANKENSTEIN TIMELINE, 1800s

1815

1810 An unnamed baby girl is born to Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Godwin. Percy Bysshe Shelley and his sister Elizabeth publish Original Poetry, by Victor and Cazire, The daughter born to P. B. Shelley and Mary Godwin dies in the under pseudonyms. The collection was night at just twelve days old. 1822 withdrawn from publication when it was Mt. Tambora erupts in what is now Indonesia. Allegra Biron dies. 1800 revealed to contain plagiarized material. is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns near Alessandro Volta—the scientist 1811 1816 with his friend Edward Elleker Williams for whom "voltage" is named— and the young Charles Vivian. P. B. invents the first electric battery.. Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from writes "." University College, Oxford, when he refuses Shelley is cremated on the beach the 1801 In the aftermath of Mt. Tambora's eruption, cooler temperatures next month; his friend Edward John to deny authorship of The Necessity of and darker days are reported worldwide, leading to what is Atheism. Trelawny rescues his heart and parts of William Godwin and Mary Jane known as "The Year Without Summer." his skull from the pyre. Clairmont marry. Percy Bysshe Shelley elopes with and commits suicide. marries the 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook. 1823 1803 Harriet Westbrook Shelley commits suicide. Second edition of Frankenstein published. At the Royal College of Surgeons, 1812 Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin marry. Giovanni Aldini applies electricity The first stage adaptation of Humphry Davy, who isolated elements 1817 to the corpse of a murderer, including chlorine, sodium, potassium, Frankenstein—Richard Brinsley Peake’s making the body twitch and barium, and calcium at the beginning of Allegra Biron (originally named Alba) is born to Claire melodrama Presumption! or, the Fate of pound the table. the 19th century, publishes the first part of Clairmont and Lord Byron. Frankenstein— is performed. Thomas Potter Cooke appears as the Creature publishes Elements of Chemical Philosophy, which Mary Clara Everina Shelley is born to Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley. Shelley read while writing Frankenstein. in a blue leotard and skin painted to The Temple of Nature. Darwin 1818 match. (Charles's grandfather) was a 1813 botanist and poet whose poetic Frankenstein published. 1824 Eliza Ianthe Shelley is born to Percy Bysshe descriptions of scientific concepts Clara Everina Shelley dies of dysentery. Lord Byron dies in Missolonghi, , influenced the development of Shelley and Harriet Westbrook Shelley. 1819 where he had traveled to join the fight both fields. Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "" for Greek independence. William Shelley dies of malaria. William Godwin, Jr., is born. is published. Percy Bysshe Shelley's Posthumous Percy Shelley, the Shelleys' one surviving child, is born 1804 1814 Poems—painstakingly edited by Mary in Florence, . Shelley—are published, infuriating P. Five years after the Haitian Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin John Polidori publishes "The Vampyre," the first work in English B. Shelley's father, who threatens to cut Revolution begins as an uprising (later known as Mary Shelley), and Claire literature to describe the modern vampire. Like Frankenstein, off Mary Shelley's meager allowance if against and colonialism, Clairmont run off to the Continent in secret. Polidori's "The Vampyre" originated in response to Byron's she ever again brings her late husband's Haitian independence is won. Charles Shelley is born to Percy Bysshe proposed story-writing competition; Polidori and Mary Shelley name before the public eye. Shelley and Harriet Westbrook Shelley. were the only competitors to complete their tales. 1800 1824

1826 The Last Man published. In the French adaptation of Frankenstein, called Le Monstre et le magicien, the title character is 1830 named Zametti and is a magician Mary Shelley publishes Perkin rather than a scientist. Warbeck. 1836 1841 Henry Milner’s Frankenstein; or, 1831 the Man and the Monster! is the first William Godwin dies. Mary Jane Godwin (formerly production to feature the Significantly revised third Clairmont) dies. 1825 creation scene.William edition of Frankenstein is 1849 Godwin, Jr., is born. published.

1859 Charles Darwin publishes On 1851 the Origin of Species, which Mary Shelley dies of a brain introduces the concept of 1850 tumor. evolution through natural 1874 selection.

1887 The London Gaiety Theatre's burlesque Frankenstein, or the Vampire’s Victim, unites Frankenstein with his literary kin, the vampire. This is neither the first nor last production to bring the iconic monsters 1879 together. 1875 Claire Clairmont dies. 1889 1899 Percy Florence Shelley dies.

It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200 | The Morgan Library & Museum It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200

FRANKENSTEIN TIMELINE, 1900–2024­

1910 Edison Studios releases the first film adaptation of 1900 Frankenstein. 1924

1931 James Whale's Frankenstein: The Man Who Made a Monster starring Boris Karloff as the Creature, introduces the iconic

image of a green monster 1938 1945 with a flat head and electrodes The Classics Illustrated protruding from his neck. The first Addams Family Frankenstein is a faithful comic cartoon by Charles Addams version of the novel. 1935 appears in the New Yorker. Lurch, the family butler, The first atom bomb is The Bride of Frankenstein, bears an aesthetic similarity to dropped on Hiroshima, Japan; 1948 James Whale's sequel to his Karloff's Creature. three days later, a second successful 1931 Frankenstein, bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. Abbott and Costello, the stars Boris Karloff as the As many as 226,000 people are comic duo known for "Who's Creature and Elsa Lanchester 1940 estimated to have been killed On First?" release the horror- 1925 as both Mary Shelley and the Dick Briefer publishes the first in the bombings and their comedy film Abbott and 1949 bride of Frankenstein. Frankenstein. immediate aftermath. Costello Meet Frankenstein.

1973 1958 Marvel’s Monster of Frankenstein, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein written by Gary Friedrichs, features a sympathetic hero makes the Creature the hero 1953 who has been disfigured in a of the story and sets the action car accident. 1965 in 1898. James Watson and 1974 Francis Crick publish the Frankenstein 1970 stars the In Frankenstein Conquers the double-helix model of aging Boris Karloff as the World, from Tokyo's Toho 1969 Young Frankenstein, a comedy DNA structure, based on last of the Frankensteins, Studios, the atomic bomb by Mel Brooks starring Gene Rosalind Franklin's x-ray a penniless scientist who dropped on Hiroshima gives Neil Armstrong walks on the Wilder, imagines the doctor's 1950 diffraction image. becomes his own creation. life to a destructive monster. moon. descendants. 1974

1994 Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, starring Branagh, Robert De Niro, and Helena Bonham Carter, attempts to adapt the novel more faithfully than many other dramatic adaptations.

1996 Dolly the sheep is the first mammal cloned from the 1975 genetic material of an adult. 1999

2011 Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle, is performed at the National Theatre. Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate performances 2000 as Victor Frankenstein and the 2024 Creature.

It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200 | The Morgan Library & Museum