On New Year’s Day 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was first published in a limited edition. Two hundred years later the story of ‘unnatural’ creation still resonates, spawning numerous interpretations and seemingly endless adaptations on stage, in novels, comics and graphic novels, advertisements, television series and some 120 films.

Drawing on his book Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years, Sir Christopher Frayling explores some of Frankenstein’s various adaptations and discusses why this story has become such a potent and mutable modern myth that has penetrated so deeply into popular culture.

Speaker Biography

Sir Christopher Frayling has had a distinguished career as an academic and in the Arts. Having taught History at the University of Bath, he became Professor of Cultural History at the Royal College of Arts in 1979 and was its Rector from 1996-2009. He was Chair of the Arts Council from 2005-2009 and Chair of the Design Council. In 2014 he was appointed Chancellor of the Arts University Bournemouth. He has written numerous books and made many broadcasts on a wide range of cultural practices including Spaghetti Westerns and the director Sergio Leone as well as Frankenstein and the birth of the Gothic sensibility.

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