Mary Shelley's Classic Book Is a Tragic Masterpiece That Hollywood Never Understood

Frankenstein was formed from tragedy. An egregious excess of heartache followed author Mary Shelley throughout her life. The mother she never met, women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, passed away from childbirth complications. Shelley herself almost bled to death from a miscarriage, while three of her four children with her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, didn’t survive past their early childhoods. Both her half-sister and Percy’s first wife died by suicide within a few months of each other. Six years later, Shelley became a widow at 24 years old.