Frankenstein

How many fictional characters have made the great leap from literature to mythology; how many creatures of sheer language have stepped from the rhythms of their author's idiosyncratic voices into what might be called a collective cultural consciousness?

The first novel of the scientific revolution and, incidentally, the first novel of science fiction

The greatest novel of the Romantic movement

Frankenstein appeals to something very primal, but it's also about profound things, the very nature of life and death and birth

Mary Shelley more than made a name for herself and thrived without a formal education, becoming a trailblazing female writer in a genre still dominated by men today