Comments on: How Mary Shelley Came to Write Frankenstein (1818) https://hademengcoffice.com/literary-musings/how-mary-shelley-came-to-write-frankenstein-1818/ An archive dedicated to classic women authors and their work Sun, 23 Nov 2025 03:19:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.15 By: julius https://hademengcoffice.com/literary-musings/how-mary-shelley-came-to-write-frankenstein-1818/#comment-101699 Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:54:19 +0000 https://hademengcoffice.com/?p=3669#comment-101699 Flavius Q. Zook. Erasmus Darwin]]> In reply to Flavius Q. Zook.

Erasmus Darwin

]]> By: Flavius Q. Zook https://hademengcoffice.com/literary-musings/how-mary-shelley-came-to-write-frankenstein-1818/#comment-101019 Fri, 05 Sep 2025 20:22:17 +0000 https://hademengcoffice.com/?p=3669#comment-101019 Perhaps I have misunderstood something but the way I read the text on this page, supposedly written by Mary Shelley herself, it states: “…In the summer of 1816, we visited Switzerland, and became the neighbours of Lord Byron…Many and long were the conversations between Lord Byron and Shelley…They talked of the experiments of Dr. Darwin…”.

By “Dr. Darwin” does Shelley refer to Charles Darwin? I ask because Charles Darwin lived from 12 February 1809 to 19 April 1882. So I fail to see how Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley could have discussed Charles Darwin’s work in 1816, since in that year Charles Darwin would have been only 7 years of age. Furthermore, Charles Darwin was awarded a BA and an MA for his studies at the university level, but I do not believe he ever earned a doctorate and thus could not be referred to as Dr. Darwin.

Was there another Darwin who prior to Charles Darwin and who also did research into the nature of life? Who would that earlier Darwin be?

]]> By: MIKE LEVERS https://hademengcoffice.com/literary-musings/how-mary-shelley-came-to-write-frankenstein-1818/#comment-5003 Sun, 13 Dec 2020 19:59:15 +0000 https://hademengcoffice.com/?p=3669#comment-5003 Great site, thanks for the insights into the author’s life and work.

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