The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Did ‘dreary’ city shores give birth to a monster?
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – and his monster – could well have been conceived on the banks of the Tay while their creator was living in Dundee.
Shelley wrote in the introduction to her novel that her intention was “to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart”. She succeeded. Shelley’s tale of Baron Frankenstein, who created a destructive monster from parts of corpses, has become one of the most influential novels of the past 200 years.
Frankenstein still has a ghoulish power and has become a classic of the genre, spawning macabre movie after frightening film.
Indisputably the most famous Frankenstein film is the 1931 feature, still regarded as a classic, starring a then little-known British actor born William Henry Pratt.
He was better known as Boris Karloff.
First published anonymously in 1818, Frankenstein is believed to have been heavily influenced by Shelley’s time in Dundee and includes a journey to Orkney.
Sàr-sgeòil: Frankenstein – produced by Caledonia TV for BBC ALBA’s literary series – is an hour-long look at the origins of Shelley’s iconic book and delves deeper into the story of its connections to Dundee.
Cathy MacDonald presents as she travels to Dundee to speak to local experts and fans of Shelley’s finest work.
Cathy finds tales that run as deep as the Tay and where a young Shelley spent her formative years living with 19th-Century jute barons, the Baxter family.
It was mused that Shelley, born into an academic and influential family to Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, went to Dundee for reasons of education and health.
However, it is also suggested a teenage Shelley – whose mother died shortly after childbirth – was sent north from London to put distance between her and love interest, the poet Percy Shelley, whom she would later marry.
The Dundee of the early 1800s that Shelley observed, was a growing industrial settlement.
In the introduction to the 1831 edition, Shelley wrote: “I lived principally in the country as a girl and passed a considerable time in Scotland.
“I made occasional visits to the more picturesque parts; but my habitual residence was on the blank and dreary northern shores of the Tay near Dundee.
“It was beneath the trees of the grounds belonging to our house or on the bleak sides of the woodless mountains near that my true compositions, the airy flights of my imagination were born and fostered.”
It is even suggested Shelley, who is believed to have lived in a house near what is now Dundee’s South Baffin Street, took her inspiration from the whalers and the ships coming back into port.
Speaking to Cathy, Dundee University’s Dr Daniel Cook set the scene at the time, including “The Cottage” where Shelley lived with William Baxter and his family.
Dr Cook also spoke about the Frankenstein Steps that were attached to the now-demolished mansion.
The steps, however, remain standing.
He said: “There are two major theories about The Frankenstein Steps.
“One is it’s located exactly where The Cottage would’ve been in which Mary Shelley lived while in Dundee.
“The other theory, which is quite popular with locals, is that it’s really named after the Boris Karloff movie Frankenstein (1931) because the Royal Cinema was located there as well and that was a big source of pride.
“It was one of the first places in the world to screen the movie.”
Sàr-sgeòil: Frankenstein (Classic Tales: Frankenstein) airs on BBC Alba on Thursday June 9 at 9pm and is available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days afterwards.