From the outline of a ghost story (1816) written only for friends, through a first edition (1818), to the final mature product (1831), Mary Shelley crafted what she called her "hideous progeny".
Frankenstein addresses common Romantic themes of isolation and the beauty of nature, but it also deals with loss, which Mary Shelley knew a great deal about. Growing up motherless, Mary also lost her sister to suicide, as well as losing three of her own children to miscarriage and early childhood deaths.