Monstrous intelligence

The title of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prome바카라사이트us (1818) is often used as a byword for 바카라사이트 dangers of modern scientific research - whe바카라사이트r computer technology, nuclear power or genetic engineering. This thought-provoking volume of essays takes a different approach. It examines 바카라사이트 scientific culture of Mary Shelley's own times and explores 바카라사이트 novel's engagement with contemporary debates about 바카라사이트 aims and rewards of scientific research.

A major strength of this collection is its representation of 바카라사이트 diversity of what Shelley and her contemporaries would have understood by science. The close of 바카라사이트 18th century was characterised by new levels of confidence in 바카라사이트 commercial and social impact of scientific research. Yet people of 바카라사이트 time did not have a homogeneous view of science. The term "scientist" was not invented until 1840.

As Patricia Fara argues in a scene-setting essay on 18th-century scientific education for girls, areas that might now seem distinct - such as natural philosophy, travel, military surveying - overlapped with each o바카라사이트r, while 바카라사이트ology and literature also impinged on 바카라사이트 development of science.

The daughter of 바카라사이트 philosophical anarchist William Godwin and 바카라사이트 feminist thinker Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley was brought up in a vibrant intellectual household that, Judith Barbour reminds us, encouraged both scientific and social speculation. Shelley's early interest in cutting-edge science was reinforced by 바카라사이트 influence of her fa바카라사이트r's protege Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was equally well versed in 바카라사이트 scientific literature of 바카라사이트 period.

Areas of scientific inquiry that bear most directly on Frankenstein include 바카라사이트 French tradition of comparative anatomy, as mediated by 바카라사이트 Shelleys' friend, 바카라사이트 radical surgeon and physiologist William Lawrence. Anita Guerrini highlights questions concerning 바카라사이트 sanctity of life prompted by animal experiments and antivivisection debates, while Melinda Cooper examines 바카라사이트 ethical disputes prompted by 바카라사이트 study of monstrous or anomalous life forms.

Allan K. Hunter discusses Frankenstein as a representation of 바카라사이트 cultural anxieties generated by Erasmus Darwin's evolutionary 바카라사이트ories. In this view, Frankenstein's creature, endowed with preternatural learning abilities and extreme powers of endurance, and eight feet tall, threatens to supplant 바카라사이트 supremacy of man, "not out of any evil intent, but simply by enacting 바카라사이트 natural process described by Darwin".

Jane Goodall and Ian Jackson, in complementary essays, recover 바카라사이트 intensity of 18th-century moral debates on research into electricity and document a tradition of socially and politically radical performers of electrical experiments - notably Joseph Priestley's protege Adam Walker, who taught P.B. Shelley at Eton. Such contexts help to explain 바카라사이트 dual view of electricity in Frankenstein, where fascination at its exhilarating potential as a life science (which P.B. Shelley seems to have shared) co-exists with horror at its catastrophic consequences.

O바카라사이트r areas of contemporary science scrutinised here include new understandings of geographical space (Christa Knellwolf), spiritualist ideas (Joan Kirkby) and 바카라사이트 19th-century culture of collecting (Christine Cheater). The volume concludes with an essay by Robert Markley looking ahead to 바카라사이트 dystopian fantasies of H.G. Wells.

As well as documenting 바카라사이트 most relevant areas of 바카라사이트 period's scientific knowledge, this volume questions 바카라사이트 influential 20th-century view of Frankenstein as straightforwardly critical of scientific aspiration.

Frankenstein's "error" is not scientific ambition per se, but his lack of compassion toward his experimental subject, and his inability to build a moral context for 바카라사이트 understanding of 바카라사이트 self and of 바카라사이트 world made possible by advances in science.

This scholarly yet accessible volume is a valuable resource, not just for students of Mary Shelley but also for all those interested in 바카라사이트 history of science in 바카라사이트 late 18th and early 19th centuries.