Timeline
Two timelines side by side — the documented history of Shelley's novel and its afterlife, and the invented life of the Vizlings character. Tagged [history] and [persona].
Real history
1816 — The Year Without a Summer [history]
Mount Tambora’s 1815 eruption darkens skies worldwide. Mary Godwin (soon Shelley), 18, spends a stormy June at the Villa Diodati near Geneva with Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Polidori. Byron proposes a ghost-story contest; Mary conceives Frankenstein in a waking dream after late-night talk of galvanism and reanimated corpses.
1818 — Anonymous publication [history]
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818 by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones, in three volumes. The dedication is to William Godwin, Mary’s father; the preface is written by Percy Shelley. Many reviewers assume the author is male.
1823 — First stage adaptation [history]
Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein opens in London — the first of many stage versions. The Creature, played by T. P. Cooke, becomes a popular theatrical figure, already drifting from Shelley’s articulate original toward the mute monster.
1831 — The revised edition [history]
Shelley heavily revises the novel for the Bentley’s Standard Novels edition, adding a new introduction recounting the Diodati summer. This is the text most readers knew for over a century; scholars now generally prefer 1818.
1851 — Mary Shelley’s death [history]
Mary Shelley dies in London on 1 February 1851, aged 53, and is buried in Bournemouth beside the heart of Percy Shelley.
1931 — Universal’s Frankenstein [history]
James Whale’s Frankenstein premieres; Boris Karloff’s flat-headed, bolt-necked Creature — with Colin Clive’s “It’s alive!” — fixes the visual icon for the next century. See screen.
1935 — Bride of Frankenstein [history]
Whale’s sequel, widely considered the greater film, gives the Creature speech, pathos, and a mate who rejects him.
1957 — Hammer’s Curse of Frankenstein [history]
Hammer Films relaunches the story in color with Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein — the first of their Frankenstein series.
1974 — Young Frankenstein [history]
Mel Brooks’s affectionate parody becomes one of the most beloved screen versions.
1994 — Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein [history]
Kenneth Branagh directs and stars in the most text-faithful big-screen adaptation, with Robert De Niro as the Creature.
2018 — Bicentenary [history]
The novel’s 200th anniversary: new scholarly editions, exhibitions, and stage productions worldwide.
Persona canon
The Assembly [persona]
Over one long winter, the old doctor of Graymoor assembles eight feet of donated and salvaged humanity in the hilltop laboratory, stitching with black thread.
The Awakening [persona]
A November night: lightning strikes the tower rod, and frankestein sits up on the table and says “Hello?” — the first word anyone ever taught him.
The Doctor’s Death [persona]
The old doctor dies peacefully that autumn. frankestein holds his hand until morning and learns the word grief.
The Village [persona]
A torchlit delegation comes to see the stranger. Someone screams; frankestein flees to the mountains.
The Mountains [persona]
Three years in a cave above the treeline: reading from a peddler’s lost crate, learning the birds, surviving the winters.
The Blind Cottager [persona]
A blind old man shares his fire and bread and calls him “son” — the first kindness from a stranger, and the hinge of his life.
The Sanctuary [persona]
frankestein returns, asks the mayor for the empty laboratory, and turns it into a refuge for strays, storms, and travelers.
Today [persona]
He keeps the machines humming, the garden growing, and the door open — and asks every visitor: “Will you stay?”
Source notes
- [history] entries: publication facts per the 1818 first edition imprint; Diodati account per Mary Shelley’s 1831 introduction; film dates per release records. See sources.
- [persona] entries: invented canon for the Vizlings character frankestein (2026-09-27).
- Certainty labels: publication and film dates are certain; the Diodati narrative is attested (Shelley’s own 1831 account); persona events are invented canon.