Is it true that when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, the original title was "Modern Prometheus?"

star_gazer

The Modern Prometheus is the novel's subtitle (though some modern publishings of the work now drop the subtitle, mentioning it only in an introduction). Prometheus, in some versions of Greek mythology, was the Titan who created mankind. It was also Prometheus who then secretly took fire from heaven and gave it to man. When Zeus discovered this, he eternally punished Prometheus by fixing him to a rock where each day a predatory bird came to devour his liver, only for the liver to regrow the next day; ready for the bird to come again, until Heracles (Hercules) releases him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein Jan 06 10, 11:18 PM

redwaldo

Yes it is true; it's alternative title is "The Modern Prometheus". It's amazing book, particularly when you consider it was written in her late teens! Perhaps she just came from 'good stock'; John Stuart Mill and Mary Wollstencroft. Jan 06 10, 11:22 PM