Frankenstein Contents
- Social / political context
- Religious / philosophical context
- Literary context
- The Bible: Creation: see Religious / philosophical context
- The Prometheus myth
- The doppelganger
- The monster's reading: Plutarch, Milton and Goethe
- The Romantics: Coleridge, Lamb, Southey, de Quincey
- Introduction
- Title page to the first edition
- Preface
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
Frankenstein Timeline
| Year | Historical | Literary | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1788 | The Times founded | ||
| 1789 |
French Revolution and fall of the Bastille First steam-driven cotton factory opens in Manchester |
||
| 1790 | First steam-driven rolling mill opens | Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France | |
| 1791 | Darwin's The Botanic Garden | Paine's Rights of Man, part 1 | |
| 1792 | Abolition of French monarchy and Republic declared; Louis XVI of France is put on trial |
Paine's Rights of Man, part 2 Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman |
Birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| 1793 |
Britain and France at war Louis XVI and his queen, Marie-Antoinette are executed. Reign of Terror begins. |
Godwin's Political Justice | |
| 1794 | Execution of Danton and Robespierre in France | Godwin's Caleb Williams | |
| 1795 |
Food riots Rise of Napoleon Thomas Carlyle born |
More's Cheap Repository Tracts Adam Smith writes Essays on Philosophical Subjects |
|
| 1796 |
Failure of French attempt to invade Ireland. Peace negotiations with France break down. Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine and invades Italy Peace negotiations with France break down |
Wollstonecraft's Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Denmark and Norway M.G. Lewis writes The Monk |
|
| 1797 |
Failure of French attempt to invade through Wales. Mutinies in navy Naval mutinies at Spithead and Nore Birth of Schubert |
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin born in London; her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, dies ten days later | |
| 1798 |
French forces land in Ireland. Government extends control of newspapers. Nelson defeats French in Egypt at Battle of the Nile Battle of the Nile; Nelson destroys French fleet |
Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads Wollstonecraft's The Wrongs of Woman published Malthus: An Essay on the Principle of Population |
Mary Shelley's father, William Godwin, marries Mary Clairmont |
| 1799 |
Combination Act bans some political societies Introduction of income tax Britain at war with France |
Godwin's St Leon | |
| 1800 |
Act of Union of Ireland with Britain (takes effect 1801) Food riots in many places in Britain Volta generates electricity |
Maria Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent Walter Scott: The Eve of St John |
|
| 1801 |
High food prices and economic and social unrest First Factory Act First cencus of England and Wales Thomas Jefferson elected President of the USA Union of Great Britain and Ireland |
||
| 1802 |
Peace of Amiens ends war with France Health and Morals of Apprentices Act passes Parliament |
||
| 1803 |
War with France begins again Richard Trevithick builds first working railway steam engine |
Godwin's Life of Chaucer | |
| 1804 |
Napoleon preparing invasion of England Napoleon crowned Emperor War with Spain |
Ann and Jane Taylor's Original Poems for Infant Minds | |
| 1805 |
Nelson's victory at Trafalgar Battle of Austerlitz |
Walter Scott: The Lay of the Last Minstrel Robert Southey: Poems |
|
| 1806 |
Napoleon defeats Prussians and establishes trade blockade of Britain End of the Holy Roman Empire |
||
| 1807 |
Slave trade abolished in all British possessions |
Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare Bowdler: The Family Shakespeare Hazlitt: Essays Leigh Hunt: Essays |
|
| 1808 |
Start of Peninsular War Beethoven: Fifth and Sixth Symphonies |
Cowper: Poems |
|
| 1809 |
Proposals for Parliamentary reform are defeated in the House of Commons Quarterly Review founded First use of gas-lighting in central London Battle of Corunna Arthur Wellesley defeats the French at Talavera and is created Duke of Wellington Tennyson is born |
Birth of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet | |
| 1810 |
George III suffering from mental illness Napoleon annexes the Netherlands Chopin and Schumann are born |
Coleridge lectures on Shakespeare | |
| 1811 |
Luddite machine-breakers active in the Midland counties of England. Prince of Wales becomes Regent following the insanity of his father George III Luddites begin destroying factory machinery Shelley is expelled from Oxford |
||
| 1812 |
War with America begins (until 1814) Further Luddite unrest Prime Minister Spencer Percival assassinated Napoleon begins invasion of Russia Wellington defeats French at Salamanca Battle of Borodino Napoleon enters Moscow but begins a retreat one month later |
Birth of Robert Browning, poet The Brothers Grimm publish their Tales Shelley publishes Declaration of Rights |
Visits Dundee and meets Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| 1813 |
Toleration Act for Unitarians Leigh Hunt imprisoned for libelling Prince Regent Wellington enters France Napoleon defeated at Battle of Leipzig Prussian army begins invasion of France |
||
| 1814 |
Robert Stephenson builds steam locomotive Napoleon abdicates and is banished to Elba End of war with America Congress of Vienna Allies enter Paris British burn Washington in USA |
Scott's Waverley | Mary Shelley elopes with Percy Bysshe Shelley. Travels to Continent with Percy Bysshe Shelley and her stepsister Claire Clairmont. Returns to England in the autumn |
| 1815 |
Napoleon returns from Elba and is defeated at Waterloo Corn Law passed Leigh Hunt released from prison on Feb. 3 Napoleon returns to France and enters Paris Napoleon finally defeated by Wellington at the battle of Waterloo Napoleon banished to St Helena John Nash begins the Brighton Pavilion |
Scott's Guy Mannering | Mary Shelley gives birth to a daughter who dies within two weeks |
| 1816 |
Riots in East Anglia and the manufacturing districts of the north of England Economic depression William Cobbett's Political Register Shelley marries Mary Godwin |
Scott's The Antiquary |
Gives birth to son, William. Travels with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Claire to Continent; they stay at the Villa Deodati with Lord Byron and Polidori Begins writing Frankenstein Returns to England. Fanny Imlay, Mary's half-sister, and Percy Bysshe Shelley's wife, Harriet, commit suicide. Marries Percy Bysshe Shelley in December |
| 1817 |
Prince Regent's coach attacked: further repressive measures by Government. Further social unrest Manchester 'Blanketeers' march to London |
Scott's Rob Roy Hazlitt's Characters of Shakespeare's Plays Southey's Wat Tyler |
Shelley completes Frankenstein while living in Marlow, Bucks Gives birth to daughter, Clara. History of a Six Week's Tour published Shelley's Laon and Cythna |
| 1818 |
Proposals for Parliamentary reform are twice defeated in the House of Commons Percy and Mary Shelley depart from England for the final time |
Peacock's Nightmare Abbey Scott's Heart of Midlothian |
Shelley's Frankenstein published |
| 1819 |
Peterloo massacres in Manchester and passing of Six Acts placing restrictions on the press and public assemblies Poor Relief Act passed Factory Act passed Queen Victoria born Birth of Albert (later Prince Consort) |
Scott's Ivanhoe; The Bride of Lammermoor Leigh Hunt: Hero and Leander J.H. Reynolds: Benjamin the Waggoner; Peter Bell (both parodies of Wordsworth) |
Shelleys travel to Italy, living in Lucca, Este (where Clara dies), Rome and Naples. Move to Rome, where William dies, and then Livorno (Leghorn). Mary writes Mathilda |
| 1820 |
Death of George III and accession of George IV Royal Astronomical Society founded |
Lamb's Essays of Elia Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer |
Shelleys move to Florence, where son, Percy Florence, is born. Move to Pisa. Mary writes Prosperine and Midas |
| 1821 |
Another reform bill defeated in Commons Greek War of Independence |
Scott's Kenilworth Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater |
Shelley's move to Livorno, Bagni di San Giuliano and back to Pisa |
| 1822 |
Colony for freed slaves founded in Liberia |
Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater | Shelleys move to Lerici. Mary Shelley suffers a miscarriage. Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns. Mary moves to Genoa |
| 1823 |
Scott's Quentin Durward Hazlitt's Liber Amoris |
Shelley's Valperga and second edition of Frankenstein published. Returns to London | |
| 1824 | Combination Acts repealed, thus giving trade unions right to exist | Scott's Redgauntlet | |
| 1825 | Stockton - Darlington Railway opens | Hazlitt's The Spirit of the Age | |
| 1826 |
Power looms destroyed by unemployed weavers Further attempts at Parliamentary reform defeated |
Shelley's The Last Man published | |
| 1828 |
Test and Corporation Acts repealed Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister |
||
| 1829 |
Catholic Emancipation Act Robert Peel creates metropolitan police force |
Carlyle's Signs of the Times | |
| 1830 |
Death of George IV and accession of William IV Earl Grey's Whig reforming government 'Captain Swing' rural riots Opening of Manchester - Liverpool Railway July Revolution in France Greek independence from Ottoman Empire secured |
Cobbett's Rural Rides Charles Lyell (Dante Gabriel?s Godfather), Principles of Geology |
Shelley's Perkin Warbeck published |
| 1831 |
Wellington resigns as Prime Minister in opposition to Parliamentary reform National Union of the Working Class founded Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction Cholera outbreak in England |
Mill's The Spirit of the Age | Mary Shelley: Revised third edition of Frankenstein published |
| 1832 |
Parliamentary Reform Act passed Passage of the Great Reform Act Morse invents the telegraph |
Chambers' Edinburgh Journal and Penny Magazine (-1837) begin | |
| 1833 |
First Tracts for the Times published Factory Act limits children's working hours and includes provision for education Abolition of Slavey Act |
Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (-1834) | |
| 1834 |
New Poor Law British Empire abolishes slavery |
||
| 1836 | Mary Shelley's father, William Godwin dies | ||
| 1837 |
Death of William IV and accession of Queen Victoria Brunel, Great Western Railway |
Carlyle's The French Revolution Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits |
|
| 1838 |
Anti-Corn Law League founded Chartist petitions published London to Birmingham railway opens People's Charter issued |
Letitia Landon dies, Gold Coast | |
| 1839 | First Factory Inspector's report |
Carlyle's Chartism Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle Ellis' The Women of England:Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits |
|
| 1840 |
Penny post begins Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert, who becomes Prince Consort. |
Mary Shelley visits Europe again | |
| 1841 |
The Tories come to power. Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister Punch begins |
||
| 1842 |
Jowett becomes tutor at Balliol College, Oxford Chartist riots. Report on Sanitary Conditions of Labouring Population Mudie's Lending Library opens Illustrated London News begins |
1842-43: Visits Continent again | |
| 1843 | Theatre Regulation Act |
Thomas Carlyle's Past and Present Ruskin's Modern Painters (vol. 1) |
|
| 1844 |
Co-operative Society founded in Rochdale Factory Act (women and children) Expansion of railways across Britain |
Disraeli's Coningsby, or The New Generation published | Percy Bysshe Shelley's father dies and Percy Florence succeeds to his estate and title |
| 1845 |
John Henry Newman converts to Catholicism Financial speculation in Railways Onset of the Irish potato famine The first Anglican sisterhood, Park Village, is founded in the Christ Church parish |
Disraeli's Sybil, or The Two Nations published E. A. Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination |
|
| 1846 |
Repeal of Corn Laws Famine in Ireland Whigs come to Power |
||
| 1847 |
Railway reaches Dorchester Ten Hours' Factory Act |
Disraeli's Tancred | |
| 1848 |
Chartist demonstrations in London following by the collapse of the Chartist movement Democratic Revolutions in Europe. Cholera epidemic Public Health Act Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founded |
Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto Newman's Loss and Gain |
|
| 1849 | Bedford College for Women founded | Charles Kingsley's Alton Locke | |
| 1850 |
Roman Catholic hierarchy established Public Libraries Act |
Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter |
|
| 1851 |
Great Exhibition in London Taylor Mill's The Enfranchisement of Women |
Ruskin's Stones of Venice Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe |
Mary Shelley dies from a brain tumour, aged 53 |
| 1853 |
Cholera epidemic Crimean War |
Yonge's Heir of Redclyffe | |
| 1854 | Onset of Crimean War | ||
| 1855 |
Daily Telegraph Repeal of stamp duty on newspapers |
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South | |
| 1856 | Crimean War ends | Dickens, Little Dorrit | |
| 1857 |
Railway extended to Weymouth Indian Mutiny Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act |
Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary Hughes' Tom Brown's School days Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh |
|
| 1858 |
Ballantyne's Coral Island English Woman's Journal begins George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life |
||
| 1859 |
Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species published Rise of movement for Home Rule in Ireland |
Smiles' Self Help published Mill's On Liberty |
|
| 1860 | Cornhill Magazine begins | ||
| 1861 |
Death of Prince Consort American Civil War begins |
Dickens, Great Expectations Beeton's Book of Household Management Wood's East Lynne |
|
| 1862 | Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret | ||
| 1863 | The Oxford Declaration published | Kingsley's The Water Babies | |
| 1864 | John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua | ||
| 1865 |
American Civil War ends Women's Suffrage Campaign Transatlantic cable laid Joseph Lister establishes antiseptic surgery Completion of St. Pancras' railway station Slavery is abolished in the USA |
Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism | |
| 1866 |
Cholera epidemic Former slaves granted citizenship and equal rights in America Ku Klux Klan founded |
Swinburne's Poems and Ballads (dedicated to Rossetti) published | |
| 1867 |
Second Reform Act Fenian Rising in Ireland |
Marx's Das Kapital published George Eliot's Felix Holt, the Radical |
|
| 1868 | Gladstone becomes Prime Minister | ||
| 1869 |
Opening of Suez Canal Mill's The Subjection of Women |
Arnold's Culture and Anarchy Blackmore's Lorna Doone |
|
| 1870 |
Education Act: free education in new board schools First Married Women's Property Act |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poems |
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