Mary and Percy Shelley spent the stormy summer of 1816 on the shores of Lake Geneva with Lord Byron, who suggested a ghost story competition. Mary, eighteen years old at the time, based her contribution on a terrifying waking dream. She worked her short story into her famous novel, which was first published anonymously in 1818. It has become the archetypal modern myth, portraying the hubris of humanity and the maker's rejection of his own creation. A new Faber Classics edition of the archetypal horror and science fiction novel.