Frankenstein is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century Gothicism & the prototype of the twentieth-century science-fiction novel It was conceived in the Swiss Alps in mid-June 1816 after a conversation about bringing corpses to life provoked a nightmare & was written over the next eleven months in largely morbid circumstances Death & the terrors of childbirth--as much as Romanticism a burgeoning awareness of unconscious drives & contemporary ideas of atheism the collapse of the social contract & the corrupting influence of society on human nature--inform this story of a man (or monster) built by Dr Victor Frankenstein & brought to life by electricity The monster&s culpability for various horrific acts his powerlessness in the face of his complete ostracism from society & Dr Frankenstein&s lies abdication of responsibility & the pain he inflicts on his creation raised chilling questions that made the novel an immediate bestseller