The Modern Prometheus

Prologue
Mary Shelley starts with an allegory used by Harari at the end of his book.  Nice link.
Namely:-
"The Hindoos give the world an elephant to support it, but they make the elephant stand upon a tortoise."  Harari asks the question, "And what does the tortoise stand on?"  The answer given is, "Don't worry, we've got plenty of tortoises."

She says that Lord Byron discussed her story with Dr Darwin, who thought that the concept of creating life in dead bodies- 'not an impossible occurrence'.  Dr Darwin?  Apparently this was Charles Darwin's grandfather. see Erasmus Darwin.)  Lord Byron's dates are 1788 to 1824.  Mary Shelley, 1797 to 1851.  Percy Shelley, 1792 to 1822.

Dates-  Book was written in 1816/1817, published 1818.  Started in the year without a summer, 1816, the year the volcano Tambora put so much ash into the atmosphere it created a world wide mini ice age.

Charlies Darwin's dates are 1809 to 1882.  His grandfather's dates, Erasmus Darwin, were 1731 to 1802.  It's curious to think how this conversation might have take place because Mary would have been 5 when Dr Darwin died.  Lord Byron would have been 15.

Mary Shelley (1797–1851) Quote:  "Still I had a dearer pleasure than this, which was the formation of castles in the air—the indulging in waking dreams."

The cottage in Englefield Green (Bishopsgate, near the Windsor Great Park),
where Percy and Mary spent two years.  

Percy, Mary and Claire traveled up the Thames to try to find the source of the river Thames.  They got as far as Letchlade where they stayed in the New Inn Hotel.