La noche de los monstruos

The year 1816 has gone down in the history of literature for the legendary stay in Villa Diodati by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Mary W. Shelley), Claire Clairmont (Mary's half-sister), Lord Byron and her doctor John William Polidori. There, after reading an anthology of German ghost stories translated into French, Byron suggested that each of them write a story. And so Frankenstein, Augustus Darwell or The Vampire would be born. As much for the singularity of its protagonists as for its literary relevance and, above all, for the influence that that summer of 1816 would have on the literature of the years (and centuries) to come, it is of special interest to be able to read all the texts that were generated during those weeks. This volume brings together not only the definitive edition of Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus of 1831, enriched with the review Percy W. Shelley wrote of it at the time of publication, and the texts of Byron and Polidori, but also a selection of diaries and letters from the various protagonists. These elements that, together with the biographical notes on their authors and the complete chronology that accompanies them, will allow the reader of today to delve into the environment and circumstances that conditioned them. And, without a doubt, admire the imagination and courage of those young people who were able to dive in that dark area that we all carry inside and get out of it some of the most indelible modern myths. A work created from a meeting that brings together stories and authors who have passed to the category of classics of horror literature.