cover image Frankenstein and the Birth of Science

Frankenstein and the Birth of Science

Joel Levy. Andre Deutsch, $29.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-233-00535-5

Science writer Levy (Mathematics: From Early Number Concepts to Chaos Theory) surveys the scientific discoveries in the air when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein while speculating on who was the living model for Dr. Frankenstein, as well as on the novel’s still-resonating philosophical questions. Levy ably charts the 18th- and 19th-century scientific debates and fads that likely provided Shelley with her tale’s raw material, foremost among them whether life could only be endowed through a metaphysical life force, but also the question of spontaneous generation; the cutting-edge practices of hypnosis and phrenology; and the nasty enterprise of grave robbing to provide bodies for dissections. While these forays are entertaining and enlivened by descriptions of bizarre experiments, Levy is at his best investigating the Frankenstein fable’s central philosophical question: did the monster have a soul, or was he merely a material creation? Provocatively, Levy explicitly links the Frankenstein myth, that of science capable of creating uncontrollable monsters, to the creation of the atomic bomb, and to genetic manipulation, or “frankenfoods.” All of these heady scientific and philosophical subjects are presented with a light touch, making them easy for a general audience to understand and enjoy. (Nov.)