Frankenstein – a complete public reading and mystery tour

Published On Thu 30 Aug 2018 by Grant Hill

A complete public reading of Frankenstein is to take place over a single weekend in various locations in and around the city that inspired Mary Shelley to become a writer.

The event, to be held on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 September, forms part of the University of Dundee’s programme to celebrate the book’s 200^th anniversary. The group will visit South Baffin Street, site of the cottage where Shelley lived during her time in Dundee, as well as a variety of other locations across the city and into Angus and Fife. Readings will take place at each of these locations that will remain a mystery until the weekend itself.

Tour organiser Matthew Jarron, Curator of the University’s Museum Services, said, “We are delighted to present a complete public reading of the 1818 text taking place as part of the Frankenstein 200 celebrations. It was in Dundee that the young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was first inspired to write, so there really is no better place to read her masterpiece.

“This is a participatory event, and priority for limited tickets will be given to those who are happy to read one or more of the sections to the rest of the group. We have chosen the sites to stop off at for a variety of reasons, including their relevance to Mary Shelley and Dundee and the surrounding area when she lived here.”

Shelley spent two years living in Dundee’s South Baffin Street as a teenager after her father William Godwin sent her to live with the wealthy jute baron Baxter family. This spell would profoundly influence Shelley, as she later acknowledged: “It was beneath the trees of the grounds belonging to our house, or on the bleak sides of the woodless mountains near, that my true compositions, the airy flights of my imagination, were born and fostered.”

The tour will leave from Discovery Point at 9am on Saturday 29 September and finish at the University’s Tower Building at 5.30pm. Day 2 will start at the Tower Building at 9.30am and culminate at South Baffin Street at around 5.30pm. The book will be read in sections of 30-60 minutes, moving to a different mystery location for each part. A coach will take participants to locations further afield, and the event will include some walking over rough terrain.

Tickets cost £12 for each day and participants will also receive a free copy of the new Dundee edition of Frankenstein that will be published in November.

More information and tickets are available from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/frankenstein-a-complete-public-reading-and-mystery-tour-tickets-48907157625.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: +44 (0)1382 384768
Mobile: 07854 953277
Email: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk