Fiona Sampson (The creation myth, Review, 13 January) provides an overview of possible sources for the central theme of Frankenstein, but fails to mention a significant one: Prometheus. It is no coincidence that Percy Shelley grasped this myth in Prometheus Unbound, and that Mary critiqued it in Frankenstein and subsequent work. As she commented to Byron’s mistress after his death: “We are all Cassandras; and we are so blind that we do not give heed to the silent voice which makes itself heard within our soul.”
While exploring the story of the production of Frankenstein, Sampson also inadvertently encourages the myth that Mary was a one-great-book wonder, lumping her impressive lifetime’s achievement under the category “dogged survivor and consummate professional”. Valperga (1823) was already in train when Frankenstein was published. The Last Man (1826) is set in a future in which a plague has killed off all but one human on the planet. In addition Mary wrote three further novels, dozens of short stories, biographical sketches, and, of course, prepared her late husband’s collected works for publication. An impressive literary legacy for which Frankenstein is only the first chapter.
Rev Barbara Jane O’Sullivan
Portsmouth
• It can be annoying to have different books of the same title (The week in books, Review, 13 January), but having authors of the same name can be confusing too. Readers finding my recently published book A Political Family: The Kuczynskis, Fascism, Espionage and the Cold War on the internet were invariably directed to “other books by John Green” (of The Fault in our Stars fame). I’m sure this connection would have helped boost the modest sales of my book, but doubt that the US novelist of the same name would be amused.
John Green
London
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