Monsters, Mirrors, and Mary Shelley:

Sai’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.In this episode of Out of the Encyclopedia of History, I unravel the stormy summer of 1816 that birthed Frankenstein and ignited a literary revolution. Through the lens of Mary Shelley’s radical feminism—not misandry—we explore her elopement with Percy Shelley, the infamous ghost story wager with Lord Byron, and the philosophical undercurrents of duality and monstrosity in Gothic literature. I also draw parallels to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde, spotlighting how women like Mary Shelley and Fanny Stevenson shaped the moral architecture of horror. With nods to Guillermo del Toro’s cinematic homage, this episode honors the legacy of literary rebels who dared to write the darkness within. Get full access to Sai’s Newsletter at saimarie.substack.com/subscribe