The Haunted Summer: The Birth of Frankenstein

 The Haunted Summer of 1816

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   The History of the Tambora Volcano 

    When you think of summer, what do you think of? Warm, sun-filled days with bright skies and beautiful fluffy clouds, or maybe even rainy days with high humidity and fog. Those who lived in the early 1800s did not experience summer in the way it is normally spent. The Tambora volcano on the Indonesian Island of Sumbawa in April 1815 erupted and made history (1). The following summer had brief warm spells of two or three days but overall was hardly summer-like (2). The eruption was so powerful that even the United States was impacted. May and June took the record for being the coldest in history at that time. May endured a series of cold air masses, with each growing progressively colder (2). By June, the cold air masses produced snow that struck New England, and it was cold enough to stick. Those who lived in Europe faced many hardships during the Year Without Summer (2). Particularly those who lived in western Europe had it just as bad, if not worse, than New England and eastern North America (2). 

    

The Impact of the Eruption

    The eruption of the volcano was a natural disaster that acted as a turning point in the ecological history of Indonesia (1). It was one of the biggest eruptions in human history, and it had major impacts on socioeconomic and ecological developments in the Indonesian archipelago (1). At first, many assumed the eruption was nothing more than cannons being fired, but soon realized it was far worse than that. The ash from the eruption was spread around the world. It was so heavy that it obscured the sun (3), which lowered the temperatures and caused the cold air masses to form. 1816 was the second-coldest year in the Northern Hemisphere since the 1400s (3). The aftermath proved to be horrible for those who survived. The cold temperatures led to harvest failure, which in turn led to food shortages. The summer of 1816 is remembered for its haunting skies filled with ash and the everlasting impact it had on those who survived it. 

Mary Shelley's Haunted Summer

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The Challenge 

    The eruption of Mount Tambora was the perfect time to share ghost stories, at least that is what Mary Shelley and her companions believed. Lord Byron and John Polidori stayed at Villa Diodati, a mansion in a village near Lake Geneva (3). John Polidori would go on to write The Vampyre, Mary Shelley would write Frankenstein, and Byron would write Darkness (2). Mary, her husband Percy, and Claire Clairmont rented a house, Maison Chapuis, which was near Villa Diodati. Both houses would meet up and spend time together, as there was not much else to do. All of them would spend their evenings inside discussing literary projects (3). But then, Lord Byron decided to challenge both houses to write a horror story that matched the dark and foreboding weather (2). Darkness descended on the afternoon, causing everyone's imaginations to run wild (3). 

    

The Birth of Frankenstein

    At first, Mary just listened to the others share their stories. She listened to them talk about ghosts and vampires, life and death, and even about galvanism (3). Byron read a story called "Christabel," which affected everyone in the group. It apparently affected Mary so much, she had to leave the room because of how terrified she was. Then, she suffered a night of insomnia, which was followed by a nightmare. This of course led to the creation of Frankenstein (3). The classic story that has been adapted in many ways was originated through a ghost story. Mary Shelley finished writing Frankenstein a year after their haunted summer, turning it into its full-blown novel. That being said, if all these writers had not been stuck inside due to the unfortunate weather conditions, would Frankenstein still exist? Would Mary Shelley still have thought up its contents and created a novel? Because of the Haunted Summer, we have all been blessed with a literary icon. 

Works Cited:

(1) Jong Boers, Bernice de. “Mount Tambora in 1815: A Volcanic Eruption in Indonesia and Its Aftermath.” Indonesia, vol. 60, 1995, pp. 37–60. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.2307/3351140

(2) Lipman, Don. “The ‘Year Without a Summer’: Two Hundred Years of Facts, Fiction, and Folklore.” Weatherwise, vol. 69, no. 2, 2016, pp. 20–27. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1080/00431672.2016.1132077

(3) Giuffrida, Amy. “The Haunted Summer of 1816 and the Origin of Frankenstein – The Midnight Society.” The Midnight Society, 24 Feb. 2020, www.midnightsocietytales.com/2020/02/24/summer-of-1816-origin-frankenstein/#:%7E:text=The%20year%20of%201816%20was,eruption%20in%20human%20recorded%20history

(4) "Summer of 1816 | Mary Shelley Wiki | Fandom.” Mary Shelley Wiki, mary-shelley.fandom.com/wiki/Summer_of_1816. Accessed 2 Mar. 2022.

(5) “Amazon.Com: Frankenstein (Norton Critical Editions): 9780393644029: Shelley, Mary,

Hunter, J. Paul: Books.” Amazon, www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Norton-Critical

Editions-Shelley/dp/0393644022. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.