Mary Shelley composed her famous novel Frankenstein (1818) amid a whirlwind of personal turmoil, important friendships, and significant travel. This course will retrace the path of her journeys from childhood to Frankenstein, visiting sites associated with her and her circle—including John Keats, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron—in London, Geneva, Venice, Florence, and Rome, as we investigate the relationships between an author’s historical and imaginative realities.