And yet this assumption was being questioned, most fervently by the man Mary falls passionately in love with - Percy Bysshe Shelley. It naturally led to a belief in God and an afterlife, and she believed that her mother was alive in this afterlife - somehow.

The prevalence of death in the early 18th century also affected Mary. Did her mother die at the mere sight of her? Is Mary herself a monstrous, destructive child? For me, the moment when Victor Frankenstein flees from his monstrous creation mirrors the complex (and largely unconscious) feelings Mary had around the death of her own mother, a mere ten days after her birth. The idea of Mary's own life informing the creation of her monster evolved naturally out of the writing and editing process. It was clear from the start that the creation of Frankenstein, and Mary's time in Geneva (where the book was conceived), would be a crucial part of the novel. Whose idea was it to approach the story of Frankenstein through the life of the young woman who wrote it?Ī: Andersen editor Charlie Sheppard commissioned the book, asking me to write about Mary Shelley's life. Q: Monsters follows the life of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. We asked SHARON DOGAR to tell us more about MONSTERS: MONSTERS explores Mary Shelley's relationships and the events that led to the creation of one of the most recognisable and enduring monsters in English literature. The novel brings to life the precocious teenaged girl, born in 1797, who left her family aged just 16 to flee to Europe to be with the person she loved. MONSTERS is the powerful novel by SHARON DOGAR - now available in paperback - in which she explores the life of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley. Her second novel, Falling (Chicken House), was published in 2009 followed by Annexed (Andersen Press) in September 2010. As well as an author, Dogar is a social worker who counsels troubled teens.ĭogar's debut novel, Waves (Chicken House), was published in 2007 and is a coming-of-age story about a family dealing with the accident of their daughter. Among her favourite books are To Kill a Mockingbird, Skellig and Where the Wild Things Are. Sharon Dogar, author of Waves and Falling, was born in 1962 just outside Oxford, where she now lives with her husband and three children.

Monsters sharon dogar