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Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
"Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus" is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. It is considered the first true science fiction story, though it is infused with elements of gothic and horror. Frankenstein tremendously influenced modern horror literature, theatre and film. She started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition published in Paris in 1821. Shelley travelled through Europe in 1815 along the river Rhine in Germany, stopping in Gernsheim, 11 miles away from Frankenstein Castle, where two centuries before, an alchemist engaged in experiments. She then went to Geneva, Switzerland, where much of the story takes place. The occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her lover and future husband Percy B.Shelley. In 1816, Mary, Percy and Lord Byron had a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made, inspiring the novel.
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Dracula, by Bram Stoker
Dracula is a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker. Published in 1897, it introduced the character of Count Dracula to the world and established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse. Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, and gothic fiction.The novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film, and television interpretations. The story of Dracula is told in an epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, and ships' log entries, whose narrators are the novel's protagonists, and occasionally supplemented with newspaper clippings relating events not directly witnessed. The events portrayed in the novel take place chronologically and largely in England and Transylvania within the same year between May 3rd and November 6th. A short note at the end of the final chapter is written 7 years after the events outlined in the novel.
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