MARY SHELLEY'S HIDEOUT

Under the volcanic cloud: when modern day monsters were created.

In 1815, Mount Tambora erupts on an Indonesian island. It is the most violent volcanic outbreak of the new age and causes immense climatic anomalies. Everything turns cold and dark, and even Europe experiences a year without summer. Timo Feldhaus follows the huge sulphur cloud that darkens the world and takes a look at what happens beneath it: Goethe discovers the science of clouds and never goes on holiday again; Caspar David Friedrich paints venomously yellow sunsets; Napoleon has been abandoned on the island of St. Helena and has lost everything. A girl sees her family die of hunger and wanders through the land where the national idea of Germany is budding.
There is an artistic eruption in Geneva: 18-year-old Mary Shelley, who has recently fled from London with her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley, hides out with Lord Byron, the first popular icon of poetry, escaping the frost and storms. This is where the quiet, highly talented woman with the mad friends and famous parents has the idea for her first novel: the story of Frankenstein and his monster, one of the first science fiction stories. Timo Feldhaus describes a sky and a world in turmoil – which is surprisingly similar to today. It is an adventurous love story in the midst of a climate catastrophe. This is exactly how it happened.