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Seth, can you site the source of this information? I was an English major in college and this is certainly something we would have discussed this when studying her work - I also googled and found nothing. I have never heard anything about Mary Shelley being on drugs, although it was quite common during her lifetime to use narcotics such as laudanum...just curious as to where you discovered this information.
I guess Seth hasn't been watching this thread. In the introduction to the 1831 edition, Mary Shelley explained how she came up with this story. She did say it was part of a waking dream, but there is no mention of any drugs. Then again, she probably wouldn't have said anything if there were! You can read the introduction here: http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/franke....
The edition I read a few years ago mentioned in the intro that she came up with the story at a party where she and some other writers were entertaining each other. One of them encouraged her to write it down, and it became this novel. But I never heard anything about drugs...possibly someone wanted to incite comments, that's all.
What difference would it even make if the story were true? The finished product is amazing and basically invented modern horror and sci-fi. Nothing about Shelley's state of mind changes that. Plus invalidating creative works based on drug use is going to leave you with a lot of classic, great stuff missing.
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Ange
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Jun 05, 2013 03:37PM
Seth, can you site the source of this information? I was an English major in college and this is certainly something we would have discussed this when studying her work - I also googled and found nothing. I have never heard anything about Mary Shelley being on drugs, although it was quite common during her lifetime to use narcotics such as laudanum...just curious as to where you discovered this information.
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I guess Seth hasn't been watching this thread. In the introduction to the 1831 edition, Mary Shelley explained how she came up with this story. She did say it was part of a waking dream, but there is no mention of any drugs. Then again, she probably wouldn't have said anything if there were! You can read the introduction here: http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/franke....
The edition I read a few years ago mentioned in the intro that she came up with the story at a party where she and some other writers were entertaining each other. One of them encouraged her to write it down, and it became this novel. But I never heard anything about drugs...possibly someone wanted to incite comments, that's all.
What difference would it even make if the story were true? The finished product is amazing and basically invented modern horror and sci-fi. Nothing about Shelley's state of mind changes that. Plus invalidating creative works based on drug use is going to leave you with a lot of classic, great stuff missing.
