The bicentennial of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was celebrated in 2018. The novel was first published anonymously in London on January 1, 1818, making 2018 the 200th anniversary of its publication.
Shelley began writing Frankenstein during the rainy summer of 1816 while staying near Lake Geneva with Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori. Byron challenged the group to write ghost stories, and Shelley's idea of a scientist creating life eventually grew into a full novel.
The 2018 anniversary inspired readings, exhibitions, conferences, new editions, and worldwide “Frankenreads” events. Institutions including the Morgan Library, Harvard, Princeton, and Caltech marked the occasion by exploring the book's literary history and its continuing relevance to science and ethics.
A common mix-up is confusing the 2018 bicentennial with the 1831 edition. Shelley substantially revised the novel for that later edition, but the original publication—and therefore the 200th anniversary—was in 1818.