A student of natural philosophy discovers the secret of life, assembles a creature from the dead, and flees the room the moment it opens its eyes. Everything that follows - the abandonment, the pursuit, the demand for a companion - comes from that flight rather than from the act of creation. Mary Shelley was eighteen when she began it, and the questions she raised have outlived every answer science has offered since.

A student of natural philosophy discovers the secret of life, assembles a creature from the dead, and flees the room the moment it opens its eyes. Everything that follows - the abandonment, the pursuit, the demand for a companion - comes from that flight rather than from the act of creation. Mary Shelley was eighteen when she began it, and the questions she raised have outlived every answer science has offered since.