> In Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, what's the name of Dr. Frankenstein'sassistant?And the answer: He doesn't have an assistant. It's true: In the original novel, Dr. Frankenstein doesn't have an assistant.The hunchbacked assistant named Igor, and later Fritz, was introduced in theseries of Frankenstein films in the 1930s.Photo credit: public domain.Although it began from a contest to write the bestghost story, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a work forever immortalized inWestern fiction. At just 18 years old, two years after running away with poetPercy B. Shelley, Mary Shelley found herself in the Swiss Alps during the "yearwithout a summer." Following the eruption of Mount Tambora[https://www.askqotd.com/mount-tambora/] in 1815, climate abnormalities struckthe beautiful Lake Geneva [https://www.askqotd.com/lac-leman/] and most otherregions of the Northern Hemisphere, creating unfavorable conditions with coldweather and gloomy skies. Forced inside, it was there that Mary, Percy, and LordByron embarked on a seemingly-silly contest for the best ghost story of thegroup, and it was there that Frankenstein was born. At first, Shelley was struck with writer's block. She couldn't seem to put herfears on the page, and rightly so – Shelley had suffered from the death of herfirstborn just days before she began to write. However, an idea visited her in adream. In the 1831 edition to Frankenstein, she wrote:> “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had puttogether. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on theworking of some powerful engine, show signs of life. … He sleeps; but he isawakened; he opens his eyes; behold, the horrid thing stands at his bedside,opening his curtains, and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculativeeyes.”And so, Frankenstein's monster was born. Yet, upon its anonymous release twoyears later, critics found the story unnerving and odd. It took some convincingfor publishers and the public, but as Gothic novels were all the rage, the storysoon after took off. Mary Shelley soon rereleased it under her name, cementingher place in the history of science fiction and horror fiction forever. Learn more about Frankenstein and Mary Shelley here[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/46p9XF2XFyxybjX2nxNbC9N/11-phenomenal-facts-about-frankenstein].