9. The European lack of summer led to the creation of a cultural horror icon
In the late spring of 1816, a group of English society mavens journeyed, as was fashionable, to spend the season in Europe. Among them were Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, John Polidori (often credited as the creator of the modern vampire myth) and Claire Clairmont, Byron’s paramour. The group selected Geneva as their site to spend the summer, which proved an unfortunate choice, as the inclement weather forced them to spend the bulk of their vacation indoors, with only each other’s company for entertainment. Bored of card games and incessant conversation, it was Byron who suggested that each pen a tale of mystery or gothic horror for the entertainment of the others, who would also serve as its literary critics.
What stories were produced by the others are lost to history, though there is speculation that Polidori wrote a short story or novella which later became The Vampyre, using scenes extracted from the efforts of both Byron and Percy Shelley. Mrs. Shelley, after several false starts and hesitation no doubt caused by the August company, produced a novel, which she entitled Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Had Mrs. Shelley not been forced to endure the summer trapped by the weather in her Swiss quarters, surrounded by impressive literary talent, Boris Karloff would never have become famous for the bolts in his neck (which don’t appear in the novel). Mrs. Shelley attributed her tale to a vision that she called an “awaking dream” which came to her as she was unable to sleep during a rainy Swiss night.