THE story of Frankenstein's monster written by Mary Shelley is hailed as one of the first modern horror novels written by a woman.
But a new book suggests that Bournemouth's most famous daughter might have had help from her husband, poet Percy Shelley.
Charles Robinson, professor of English at the University of Delaware and editor of The Original Frankenstein, to be published in October, claims Percy had significant input into the manuscript and should therefore have a credit alongside Mary.
After analysing hand-written drafts of the book kept in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Prof Robinson claims to have identified changes to the manuscript made in Percy's handwriting equating to roughly eight per cent of the book.
He believes that the pair would have used the same pen and probably have written the novel while they were in bed together.
Mary famously came up with the idea for fiction's most famous monster after she, future husband Shelley and Lord Byron spent an evening telling ghost stories, after which Byron suggested they write their own gory tales.
Mary went on to have a "waking dream" which led her to write the novel Frankenstein.
The claims are similar to some made by American academic John Lauritson who, after seven years of research, concluded that the book was written by Percy.
Mr Lauritson, whose book The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, was published in May last year, claimed Mary was "a poor writer" with little imagination.
Andrew Emery, a local historian, whose book A History of Bournemouth Seafront, was published in May this year, described the new claims as "exciting" but doubted whether Prof Robinson was correct.
Mr Emery said: "Her husband was a noted poet so I can understand why some scholars might attempt to try and find proof that Percy might have had some involvement in the writing of the book.
"Having said that, I think it is such a ground-breaking original novel and Mary Shelley is rightly credited as the author of that work.
"I just look at it from this point of view - why would he write the book and then not claim credit for it during his lifetime?"
Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood, who has campaigned for a statue of Frankenstein's monster to be erected in Bournemouth to emphasise the town's links with the author, also doubted the new claims.
He said: "The two were so involved in each other's books and were the romantic couple of the day. She helped edit his poems and he helped edit her work.
"I think the writer of this new book is suggesting that he's looked at the original manuscript but he has only seen eight per cent of the work.
"So eight per cent of 70,000 words is still a very small percentage. These books were all written by hand, corrected, edited and scribbled on - and the publishers have their influence as well.
"There is no way you could say this was co-written. It was certainly Mary Shelley's work."
Jon Weaver, marketing events manager at Bournemouth Tourism, said the claims could open up a fresh debate on the author's work.
"It is an interesting piece of research and it will be interesting for people who come down here and visit the town.
"I have always said that Mary Shelley and the Shelley influence down here is a very important part of the town's history and the fact she was associated with Frankenstein," he said.
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