Another Charlotte

The theme for this year’s B.O.M. at Quilt Etc. is “The Great American Read.” Our first novel was an old favorite, Charlotte’s Web. I’m currently reading two books. The first is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (the focus of this month’s block) and the second is Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. These two very different books begin with mention of the same event: the year without a summer. Catastrophic volcanic eruptions in the Dutch East Indies caused New England to experience freezing temperatures in June, July and August of 1816. People thought judgement day had come. The ensuing religious furor sent young Joseph Smith to a grove to pray. That same summer the Shelleys, Lord Byron and John William Polidori were stuck in a Swiss chalet, their holiday ruined by unseasonal cold and rain. A competition to see who could write the best ghost story was suggested, and Frankenstein was born.