FRANKENSTEIN

In 1815 the Tambora Volcano errupted on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. This erruption was so large that the ash from the volcano in the atmosphere caused world temperatures to remain below normal for the next 40 years. Crops failed and thousands starved.

In the summer of 1816 Mary Shelley (age 19), her husband and some other writers were vacationing in Europe at Lake Geneva where it was normally very warm. But that summer it was quite cold, so the writers decided to remain inside and see who could write the scariest ghost story. The cold temps that summer account for the frigid scenes that Shelley wrote into the beginning and the end of the novel.