Mary Shelley, along with her Husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, spent time in Geneva while she wrote the novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. In the novel, the Frankenstein family is from Geneva. In the preface of the novel Shelley says, “I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we crowded around a blazing wood fire” (Shelley). The couple spent a great amount of time at the Villa Diodati in Geneva with Lord Byron due to the inclement weather hindering their travel. According to Bill Phillips, the weather Shelley experienced at Lake Geneva while writing Frankenstein greatly impacted the story and motivated her to write. He says the “gothic gloom of the novel may well be a reflection of the meteorological conditions under which the novel was conceived and written” (Phillips 66). The dark and stormy weather may have also prompted the disastrous consequences the creature experiences. Knowing that the weather was gloomy when Shelley wrote this novel highlights the impact of her surroundings on the story. Additionally, writing the Frankenstein family to originate from Geneva shows the significance of this location. Victor leaves Geneva due to struggling with the painful memories and to follow the creature he created. He falls ill and then returns to Geneva with his father. By having Victor leave, only to eventually return, emphasized Shelley’s personal connection to Geneva. While she had painful experiences, she also returned.

Works Cited

Phillips, Bill. “Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s ‘Wet Ungenial Summer.’” Atlantis, vol. 28, no. 2, 2006, pp. 59–68. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41055247.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, 1818.