--Aristotle, Metaphysics (Book 1 Pt.1)

Gothic literature is a genre of writing that plays on man's deepest fears and regrets. From the era of the Gothicism, many genuine classics arose from the ashes of the Neoclassical Period (1660-1785) and the Age of Reason (1750-1800). Novels such as Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764), Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796), Ann Radcliffe's The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents (1797), and Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) defined the era. Another great story not mentioned above was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus. Having over thirty film adaptations, Frankenstein is known as one of America's greatest horror stories.

Mary Shelley, born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in London on August 30, 1797, was the daughter of a well-known author and philosopher, William Godwin. Her life seemed a bit like a Grimm fairytale. Her mother, whom "she...