In 1816, Mary Shelley, 19 years old, had written Frankenstein, the first science-fiction novel. She died, without knowing that she had given rise to one of the most important myths of the Western culture. However, the interest of the life of Mary Shelley exceeds her masterpiece: free, avant-gardist, her life is filled with spectacular bounces. So much that the novel and the life of the writer seem sometimes inseparable. Where the fiction stops and where the reality starts?