Dr. Frankenstein is a Amalgam of Scientists of the Time
The actual writing of Mary’s novel can be followed fairly closely from her journal in Switzerland, and then back in England at Great Marlow on the Thames. What is less clear is where she gathered her ideas and materials from, and how she created her two unforgettable protagonists: Dr Frankenstein and his Creature. One is tempted to say that the Creature – who is paradoxically the most articulate person in the whole novel — was a pure invention of Mary’s genius. But in Victor Frankenstein of Ingolstadt she had created a composite figure who in many ways was typical of a whole generation of scientific men. The shades of ‘inflammable’ Priestley, the deeply eccentric Cavendish, the ambitious young Davy, the sinister Aldini and the glamorous, iconoclastic William Lawrence may all have contributed something to the portrait.
Notes:
From Shelley's journals.
Folksonomies: fiction inspiration
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Concepts:
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England (0.687899): website | dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago | geonames
Victor Frankenstein (0.620411): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago
University of Ingolstadt (0.601905): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Frankenstein's monster (0.601335): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago
James Whale (0.596121): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Young Frankenstein (0.585072): dbpedia | freebase | yago
The Age of Wonder