{"product_id":"9780316075725","title":"The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A superlative, riveting history\" (\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e) of Mary Shelley's creation of \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e and the personal and poetic background behind the story. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  One murky night in 1816, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lord Byron, famed English poet, challenged his friends to a contest--to write a ghost story. \u003cbr\u003eThe assembled group included the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; his lover (and future wife) Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; Mary's stepsister Claire Claremont; and Byron's physician, John William Polidori. The famous result was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a work that has retained its hold on the popular imagination for almost two centuries. Less well-known was the curious Polidori's contribution: the first vampire novel. And the evening begat a curse, too: Within a few years of \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e's publication, nearly all of those involved met untimely deaths. \u003cbr\u003eDrawing upon letters, rarely tapped archives, and their own magisterial rereading of Frankenstein itself, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler have crafted a rip-roaring tale of obsession and creation.","brand":"Little, Brown and Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47117486653680,"sku":"9780316075725","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780316075725_p0.jpg?v=1769889019","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780316075725","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}