Before Reading: The Myth, Mary Shelley & Timeline
Step 1 – Read the background cards (click a card to flip it) and do the short check quiz. Step 2 – read about Mary Shelley's life, fill in the timeline and put the events in order, then read about the places in the novel and match the places. Step 3 – write a few sentences.
Check quiz
A short life of Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was born in London in 1797. Her mother died only days later, so Mary grew up with her father, a famous writer. As a young woman she travelled through Europe with the poet Percy Shelley. In the cold, grey summer of 1816, during a holiday at Lake Geneva, she had the idea for Frankenstein. The book came out in 1818, when she was only 20 – but without her name on the cover. Writing novels was seen as a job for men at the time, so the book was published anonymously, and many readers assumed a man had written it. Only in 1831, when a new edition came out, did readers finally learn that Mary Shelley was the real author. She kept writing for the rest of her life and died in 1851.
Task: Type in the year
Read the text again if you need to. Type the correct year for each event.
Now put them in order
Well done! Now drag the events into the correct order – earliest first.
Places in the novel
Frankenstein travels through many parts of Europe. Victor's family lives in Geneva in Switzerland. He studies and builds his creature in Ingolstadt in Germany. Later he meets the creature again high up in the Alps near Mont Blanc. With his friend Clerval he travels through England, and then to the lonely Orkney Islands in Scotland. The story itself begins and ends far away near the North Pole, deep in the icy Arctic, where the explorer Walton meets Victor. Read the descriptions and match them below.
Fun fact: Ingolstadt in a world-famous novel!
Ingolstadt is a real city – and it is not far from here! When Mary Shelley needed a place where Victor could study science and secretly build his creature, she chose Ingolstadt. Back then, the city really did have a famous university (it later moved away, first to Landshut and then to Munich). Ingolstadt even had a slightly mysterious reputation: in 1776, the secret society of the Illuminati was founded right there. Real science, real secrets, a real "forbidden knowledge" reputation – the perfect setting for Victor's dangerous experiment!
Today Ingolstadt is famous worldwide for something completely different: it is the home of Audi. But the city is proud of its literary fame too, and it likes to remind people of its Frankenstein connection. So next time you pass through Ingolstadt, remember: this small Bavarian city, so close to your own school, is hidden inside one of the most famous novels ever written – pretty exciting, right?
Task: Match the places
Drag the right description to each place. Then click Check.
Speaking Task: Talk about what you learned
Partner or small-group task (about 10 minutes). Before you start reading the novel itself, work through this stack of cards together – like a card game, only the top card is shown. Read the task out loud and discuss it – take turns, make sure everyone speaks, and try to use as much English as possible. Stuck for words? Tap the card for keywords and useful phrases, then use Next card to draw the next one.
Your turn (writing)
Write 2–3 sentences in English: Which fact about the book or the author do you find the most interesting, and why?