[latepaul]

I would like to nominate Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Should anyone need it here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Spoiler:

At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

It's the 200th anniversary of its first publication this year and though I've seen a few movies, seen it referenced thousands of times in pop culture, I've never read the actual novel. I hear that some of the tropes and stereotypes that have built up around the story and the creature in particular are not based on the actual novel so it would be interesting and fun to get back to the source.

It's available where ever you get your out of copyright books, including here on Mobileread (mobi, epub).

(Those links are to the more common 1831 edition but if picked I'll be reading the original 1818 version).