ABSTRACT
The chapter shows how Mary Shelley's childhood reading entered into the composition of Frankenstein. It argues that Shelley's early reading laid the foundation for the sensational novel she wrote as an adolescent. Frankenstein, like Boerhaave, is an ambiguous figure who may be seen as a scientific genius or a dabbler in the uncanny. The creature is equally ambiguous: is he an orphaned soul, rejected and cursed for crimes he never intended to commit, or is he a 'cruel and lascivious ape' like Goldsmith's orang-outang? Detailed discussion of these ambiguities will shed light on the baffling complexity of Frankenstein. Reading and writing were activities that logically belonged together for the couple, a fact which helps us disentangle the frequently disputed question concerning Percy's participation in the authorship of Frankenstein. Growing out of an imaginative cooperation, it can be described as the outcome of an inspired attempt to be jointly creative, or in other words to blend writing desire with reading desire.
