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.
Johann Conrad Dippel
A local historian, Walter Scheele, believes that the legends told in the villages surrounding the castle were transmitted by Jacob Grimm to Mary Jane Clairmont, translator of Grimm's fairy tales and stepmother of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Scheele also claims that, in 1814, Mary, her half-sister Claire Clairmont, and Percy Bysshe Shelley are said to have visited Castle Frankenstein, on their way to Lake Geneva. Other historians, whether their field of research is Grimm, Shelley, or the Castle Frankenstein, do not see any evidence for this. Scheele's claimed letter of Grimm is nowhere to be found. And no evidence can be found that Clairmont was considered the translator for Grimm's Fairy Tales.
Regardless of the historical validity of the connection, however, Dippel's status as Frankenstein's prototype seems assured in current popular culture (similar to Count Dracula's equally controversial interchangeability with the historical Vlad the Impaler). In addition to Florescu's speculative work, the Dippel/Frankenstein merging has appeared in several works of fiction: Robert Anton Wilson's fantasy novel "The Earth Will Shake" features Dippel as a monster-making, globe-hopping magician who calls himself Frankenstein; the science fiction novel "The Frankenstein Murders" portrays Dippel as an assistant to Victor Frankenstein; Topps' three-part comic book miniseries "The Frankenstein-Dracula War" lists Dippel as one of Dr. Frankenstein's chief inspirations; Warren Ellis's graphic novel "Frankenstein's Womb" hypothesizes that Shelley indeed visited Castle Frankenstein and heard of Dippel before writing her famous work; Christopher Farnsworth's debut novel "Blood Oath" features a vampire trying to stop an immortal Dippel (who had once worked for Adolf Hitler) from creating a Frankenstein-like army; G.M.S. Altman's novel "Dippel's Oil" features a kindhearted Dippel living in modern times, bemused at his influence on the Frankenstein myth; Larry Correia's novel "Monster Hunter Vendetta" makes reference to Dippel as the creator of an enigmatic character, 'Agent Franks'; Kenneth Oppel's 2011 novel "This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein" includes several homages to Shelley's influences, including the naming of Victor Frankenstein's twin brother Konrad, after the alchemist; Stan Major's novel "Rimms of Khaos" features Dippel as an immortal criminal mastermind, forced to make Frankensteinian monsters for a master vampire bent on world domination. Johann Dippel is mad-doctor Lord Hervey's hero in the Frankenstein Chronicles TV series, and Dippel's reanimated son becomes Hervey's partner in crime.