It was a dark and stormy night -- The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein -- recommended reading

The perpetual lead-off for Snoopy's novels in the "Peanuts" comic strip was all-so-true on the night the first international celebrity, Lord Byron, challenged his friends, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary Shelley, and two other friends to come up with unique scary stories. Mary certainly lived up to that challenge with her story of a man so arrogant of his abilities that he ultimately destroys everyone he loves with his creation, his "monster," in Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. In the end, hers was the only story from this group that became an instant success and an enduring classic.

This non-fiction account -- by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler -- of the lives of these five people and their entanglements provides a telling background to the creation of one of the most recognizable characters of modern times. Mary Shelley certainly had a number of characters to draw on from her own life to bring her story to fruition. The Hooblers do a wonderful job blending them into this story of great love and ever greater loss, with a little scandal thrown in for good measure!

And, if you haven't read it already, make sure to add Frankenstein to your must-read list. It's a classic for all times. Just try to forget the movies you've seen about the subject and enjoy!