The Alpine villa where Mary Shelley conceived Frankenstein’s monster
The monster created by mad scientist Victor Frankenstein would make Mary Godwin a best-selling author and cement her literary partnership with her future husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. In addition, it would also shape the future of storytelling for centuries to come.
Godwin’s story, published under her married name, Mary Shelley, practically invented the gothic horror and science fiction genres overnight. The night in question was a summer evening on the shores of Lake Geneva in June 1816, when Godwin, Shelley and a small group of friends, including romantic poet Lord Byron, gathered to tell ghost stories.
For several days, incessant, heavy rain had forced the group to stay indoors, giving Godwin time to think up her extraordinary tale of humanity’s desire to play god. Given the magnitude of the artistic achievements this night gave rise to – which also included the proto-horror novel The Vampyre and part of Byron’s first epic poem, Childe Harold – where exactly they were staying has become a point of historical interest itself.
The precise location where this landmark in modern literature took place was Villa Diodati, a century-old Italianate mansion house with a stunning view of the lake owned at the time by the relatives of Italian translator Giovanni Diodati. Byron had rented the property at the start of his lifelong exile from Britain. Having crossed paths with Shelley and Godwin, who happened to be travelling around Geneva at the time, he decided to stay there.
A many-storied house
Villa Diodati already had literary connections prior to Byron’s arrival since a distant relative of its owners had been friends with 17th-century English poet John Milton. Byron himself liked this coincidence and decided to rename the villa after the original family name before propagating the myth that Milton himself had visited it.
In the century before Byron made the place his home, its owners hosted other literary figures of great repute from around Europe, from French philosopher and satirist Voltaire to the father of German literature Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After Byron and Shelley’s deaths, the three-storey villa became a site of pilgrimage for those influenced by the English, including French realist writer Honoré de Balzac and his wife Eveline Hańska. It even appears in one of his novels.
It has since changed hands between several private owners and residents, one of which was the modern artist Balthus in the mid-20th century. Additionally, the villa has been used as the set for Ken Russell’s 1986 film Gothic, which is based on the events surrounding Mary Shelley’s creation of the Frankenstein story. And it’s the setting for Chuck Palahniuk’s horror novel Haunted, as well as an episode of Doctor Who.
Today, Villa Diodati remains in private hands, so it can’t be visited directly. It can be viewed from the nearby Byron Meadow, which is dedicated to its most famous resident. While the meadow might be less haunting, it doesn’t provide much shelter from the storm.
