Love, Sex and Frankenstein

An evocative,haunting retelling of the summer that should have broken Mary Shelleybut instead inspired her to write her masterpiece. Villa DiodatiLake Geneva1816: the dark summer that birthed a monster. Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her loverPercy Shelleyand her sisterClaire. Tormented by ShelleyΓÇÖs betrayalshaunted by the loss of their babyand suspicious of her sisterΓÇÖs intentionsMary seeks a refuge. But Lord ByronΓÇÖs villalying under ominousash-shrouded skiesfeels more like a trap. When Byron suggests each guest write a supernatural taleMary is as drawn to the challenge as she isunexpectedlyto Byron himself. And so an idea begins to form in her mind . . . It spills out of her in thickblack ink. A thing given life by her imagination. Day and nightit possesses her. Her hearther desires. But is she in controlor is it? In this hauntingly evocative feminist retellingCaroline Lea delves into the female ragecreative madness and steamy scandal that bore the world’s most famous work of gothic fiction.