16. FRANKENSTEIN Mary Shelley

So entrenched in our culture is the idea of the man monster created by a scientist that it’s almost impossible to believe it was the brainchild of an 18-year-old woman, the wife of Romantic poet and philosopher, Percy Bysshe Shelley. This vivid story, suffused with sadness, follows the unnamed creation of the unlucky Dr Victor Frankenstein, and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be human.

VARIOUS