midnight
Dr. Polidori 's skull-headed lady , Byron 's vampire-gentleman , Mrs. Shelley 's man-created monster -- a grotesque and gruesome trio -- had at least the attraction of novelty . It is indeed remarkable that so young and inexperienced a writer as Mary Shelley , who was only nineteen when she wrote _ Frankenstein _ , should betray so slight a dependence on her predecessors . It is evident from the records of her reading that the novel of terror in all its guises was familiar to her . She had beheld the majestic horror of the halls of Eblis ; she had threaded her way through Mrs. Radcliffe 's artfully constructed Gothic castles ; she had braved the terrors of the German Ritter - , Räuber - und Schauer-Romane ; she had assisted , fearful , at Lewis 's midnight diablerie ; she had patiently unravelled the `` mystery '' novels of Godwin and of Charles Brockden Brown . -LSB- 117 -RSB- Yet , despite this intimate knowledge of the terrible and supernatural in fiction , Mrs. Shelley 's theme and her way of handling it are completely her own . In an `` acute mental vision , '' as real as the visions of Blake and of Shelley , she beheld her monster and the `` pale student of unhallowed arts '' who had created him , and then set herself to reproduce the thrill of horror inspired by her waking dream . _ Frankenstein _ has , indeed , been compared to Godwin 's _ St. Leon _ , but the resemblance is so vague and superficial , and _ Frankenstein _ so immeasurably superior , that Mrs. Shelley 's debt to her father is negligible .