Victor Frankenstein observing the first stirrings of his creature. Engraving by W. Chevalier after Th. von Holst, 1831.

Mary Shelley described in her novel Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus, how Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss student at the University of Ingolstadt, Bavaria, created a living being. The creature lies on the floor, its legs astride a skeleton. In the left foreground, an open book. In the background, electrical and chemical apparatus, and a bookcase on top of which are skulls. An astrological chart is stuck up on a wall. Frankenstein leaves hastily through a door on the right