Moraine Valley Educational Resources

Fact Sheet

• The word Frankenstein means "the stone of the Franks". It comes from the time when the Franks took control of Gaul from the Romans, which occurred around 500 A.D. Part of the land included a Roman quarry near what is now know as Darmstadt, Germany.

• Knight Arbogast Von Frankenstein is the earliest know person to use the surname. He built a castle near this quarry.

• Legend has it that a 16^th century knight, Sir George Frankenstein, died in combat while slaying a dragon. He did this heroic deed while saving the “beautiful Annemarie” known in literature as “The Rose of the Valley.”

• Johann Konrad Dipple [1673-1734], born in the Frankenstein castle, was considered “a wandering scholar and alchemist,” who signed his written works “Frankensteina” and claimed to have the secret of the philosopher’s stone, and could create life.

• Johann Wolfgang Goethe was inspired by a visit to the 18^th century ruins of the Frankenstein castle to write his famous epic poem Faust. It was said that he read parts of the unfinished manuscript to friends while sitting under the linden trees of the castle ruins.    

• Mary Shelley visited the castle ruins in 1814, during a journey down the Rhine with her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. Four years later she published her famous novel.

• In 1831 Johann Tracht emigrated to America to pursue the arts, whereupon he changed his name to Frankenstein.  His two sons, George and Godfrey Frankenstein, became well-known landscape artists. They pained the 1000’ by 8’ panorama of Niagara Falls, inspiring the poet Corrila to write “America, Niagara, Frankenstein/Three names united in a kindred bond/Glad freedom’s home-her voice of Praise-her mind.”

• When Percy Shelley’s first wife, Harriet, drowned in London in 1816, rescuers took her lifeless body to a receiving station of the London Society. There, doctors used vigorous shaking and electricity to try to restore her, to no avail.

• In March 1815, Mary Shelley dreamed of her dead infant daughter held before a fire, rubbed vigorously, and restored to live.  

• In 1816 Mary Shelley's older half sister and Percy Shelley's wife committed suicide within a few weeks of each other.  Later Mary's son William and Percy and Mary's son and daughter died a year apart.

• Only 500 copies of the book were originally published, a small number even then.  After one year, there were over 100 unsold copies left.

• By 1823, the English Opera House was performing Presumption: or, The Fate of Frankenstein, which spawned fourteen other dramatizations by 1826.  Shelley attended at least one of the productions.

• Mary Shelley was a mere 19 when she started the novel, and 21 when the book finally came out in March, 1818.

• Frankenstein is considered to be the first work of science fiction.

• Shelley considered the creature "a hideous phantasm of man."  In the 1994 Branagh film, the term "Monster" was banned from the set. Instead De Niro's character was referred to as "The Sharp-Featured Man", which was how it appears in the credits.

• Influential authors such as Sir Walter Scott considered the novel unique and a work of genius, writing in Blackwood's Edinburgh the he was impressed with "the high idea of the author's original genius and happy power of expression."

• During Shelley's lifetime two additional editions of the novel were published.

• Since that time, over four hundred editions of Frankenstein have been printed.

• In the 1800s, Shelley's Frankenstein metaphor was used to warn more against political corruption than against "mad scientists."  A cartoon from 1854 portrays Czar Nicholas I from Russia, a military leader of the Crimean War, as the "Russian Frankenstein."

Cinema Representations

• The original rendition of Frankenstein, the 1910 feature by Thomas Edison, was missing until an original nitrate print was found in Wisconsin in the 1970’s. Prior to this the only representation of The Monster, played by Charles Ogle, were from stills.

• In the 1931 movie, Boris Karloff objected to the monster throwing the little girl Maria into the lake, departing when she didn’t float like the flowers. Karloff believed that the monster should have put Maria gently into the lake. The director compromised at the time, having the action end as the Monster moves toward her, but the video edition restored the original more violent scene.

• Both Bela Lugosi and John Carradine turned down the part of The Monster. Lugosi refused to play a character that didn’t speak, and Carradine felt that his classical training made him too talented to stoop to playing a monster.

• After the Monster comes to life and Dr. Frankenstein cries his famous “It’s alive” over and over, he declares “Now I know what it’s like to be God!” This was too much for the sensors, who demanded it be removed. So the sound technicians covered the line with a crack of thunder. The restored print could not fully recover the line, so it sounds garbled at best.

• Karloff’s wife gave birth to their first child during the filming. He was so excited at the news that he immediately left for to see his family while in full costume.  His arrival created panic throughout the hospital.

• The 1931 movie was released in the United States on November 21, 1931, with an original running time of 71 minutes.

• The Bride of Frankenstein, a sequel to the 1931 film, starred Karloff and Elsa Lanchester as the bride.  It was released in 1935 by Universal.

• A second sequel, Son of Frankenstein, was released in 1939.  It starred Karloff, Basil Rathbone, and Bela Lugosi.

• Warner Brothers came out with The Curse of Frankenstein, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

• Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!, another Warner Brothers film starring Peter Cushing, was released in 1969.

• The Academy Award nominated (Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound) film Young Frankenstein, starring Peter Boyle ( of Everyone Loves Raymond) Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks, and Marty Feldman, came out in 1974. PN1995.9.F8 Y68 1998 VIDEO CASSETTE

• The film considered most representative of the book, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, starring Robert De Niro and director-star Kenneth Branagh, came out in 1994. PN1995.9.H6 M27 1995 VIDEO CASSETTE.  De Niro studied stroke victims to get the feel for speech that is just emerging.