
Frankenstein and the gory gang: how the novel blazed a trail for high art horror - dsr12
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/31/she-created-a-monster-how-mary-shelleys-frankenstein-invented-modern-horror-200th-anniversary
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pmoriarty
Did she?

There's a book called _The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein_ [1] that argues that it
was actually her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who wrote it.

[1] - [https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Wrote-
Frankenstein/dp/0943742...](https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Wrote-
Frankenstein/dp/0943742145/)

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apocalypstyx
Has there ever been a major conspiracy theory / claim that a book ostensibly
attributed to a male author was in fact composed by a female one?

In the same vein, would anyone contest Shakespeare's claim to the plays that
bear his name if it were not for the fact that he was born a bit too low in
the British class system?

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KineticLensman
Historically many female authors published under male pen names. The Bronte
sisters for example.

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apocalypstyx
Yes. And a significant strain of public opinion believed that women shouldn't
even be allowed to read their books because they were just too incompatible
with womanhood. And even after the facts of authorship came out, some people
still denied it. I almost suspect they weren't really accepted until they
became the, sort of, categorical female writer per generation that that the
history of British literature tends to display, along Austen and Eliot, etc.

