"There never was a wilder story imagined," wrote one reviewer on the first publication of Frankenstein in 1818: "we do not well see why it should have been written." The admiring Sir Walter Scott felt that Frankenstein's "unexpected and fearful events... shook a little even our firm nerves". The prophetic power of novel's imagery in reflecting the dehumanising effects of science, technology, empire, business and the mass media has never abated. Writing...