In preparation for my re-read of Frankenstein sometime in the near future, I thought Harkup's overview of Shelley's life and her inspirations would be a good lead-up to the story itself. The first few pages are mainly focused on her upbringing and how it may have influenced her, and the rest of the chapters go into more detail about the developments in science and medicine.

I appreciate how Harkup manages to explain even the most difficult concepts in a way that a layman can understand them. I was a bit worried I'd have to skim some parts, but the journey through alchemy, Enlightenment, body snatching (my favorite topic, ha), scientific experiments, specimen preservation, surgical history etc. went without a hitch. There's a huge amount of meat around the conceptual bones mentioned in the novel, and Making the Monster gives a strong historical and scientifical context to Victor's efforts.