Shelley (World 61)
Mary Shelley
(1797 – 1851; first SF publication, 1818) is the earliest, and perhaps youngest, author in this list. At the time she wrote (in the early 1800s, when she was less than twenty years old) there was no such thing as “science fiction”; her
Frankenstein
was (and often still is) classified as horror and Gothic. However, her story of Dr. Frankenstein’s experimental attempts to create life from no-longer-living matter is definitely also science fiction. Her later books tend toward the historical and romantic, although she does write at least one other SF title, the apocalyptic
The Last Man
. For me, Shelley tends more to Respect rather than Enjoy. I confess that I find older novels (particularly those prior to 1900) harder to work my way through.
Essence of Life
As Dr. Frankenstein conducts his experiments, he discovers the Essence of Life, which, along with a jolt of electricity, brings his Creature to life.