The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein
The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein is a 2007 book written and published by John Lauritsen, in which the author argues that the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, not his wife Mary Shelley, is the real author of "Frankenstein" (1818), that the novel "has consistently been underrated and misinterpreted", and that its dominant theme is "male love". Lauritsen maintains that handwriting cannot be used to determine the actual author of "Frankenstein". His work received positive reviews in gay publications. However, some commentators in other publications rejected Lauritsen's views and supported the conventional view that "Frankenstein" was written by Mary Shelley.
On Frankenstein
In his biography "Life of Shelley", Medwin had written that he sought to have the review published to demonstrate that, contrary to claims, Shelley did not write the novel and did not have any role in its creation: "I have heard it asserted that the idea [of "Frankenstein"] was [Percy Bysshe] Shelley's, and that he assisted much in the development of the plot." Notwithstanding Medwin's own claims, the drafts and proofs of the novel showed that this statement was accurate. Shelley had come up with the idea for the novel, as Mary herself acknowledged in the 1831 Introduction, and he had, at the very least, made substantial contributions to the writing of the novel. Mary had not, however, included the review in her compilations and publications of Shelley's prose works. John Lauritsen in "The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein" argued that Mary suppressed the review because she feared it would expose Shelley as the true author of the novel.