On a dark and stormy night in 1816, a teenage girl sat down and invented science fiction. Mary Shelley was no more than 18 years old when she wrote "Frankenstein". From the moment of its publication 200 years ago, readers have been wondering, as Mary put it, "How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?" "Outcasts" takes readers behind the scenes, to reveal the surprisingly contemporary thoughts and feelings of Mary, an unmarried mother and the lover of radical poet Percy Shelley, their friend Lord Byron, and the other guests at the "most famous literary party in history". What led the daughter of two of the most radical philosophers in England to turn her hand to horror? As the 200th anniversary of "Frankenstein" approaches, many readers will be rediscovering the novel, perhaps reading it for the first time. "Outcasts" reveals new insights into the origin of the most famous monster in the world, while showing us the stunning new science, radical politics and social turmoil of Europe in the wake of the Napoleonic wars. The world was on the brink of a new era, when anything and everything was possible, and in this brave new world a new literature - and a timeless Creature - was born.