One of the most influential texts of the 19th century, "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" is widely regarded as one of the first true science fiction novels. The book's Gothic author, Mary Shelley, was keen to the cutting edge science of her time, inspired in part by misinterpretation of galvanism, which is electricity produced by chemical action, causing behavior like muscle contraction, for example.
The term's namesake, Luigi Galvani, believed that galvanism confirmed his theory of a form of energy called "animal electricity" that gives living things their life force. He demonstrated this by electrocuting dead frog legs and watching them twitch. Shelley was inspired by these experiments, weaving it into her story of Frankenstein's creature made from a potpourri of corpses.
