Frankenstein

The earliest days on paper are harder to pin down, partly because the term "science fiction" was coined long after the first books were written. The clearest early example is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein . More correctly Mary Godwin's, as the 19-year-old author was not yet married to Shelley, the original Frankenstein is pure science fiction, despite the horror movie antics that have followed. Like most writing of its time (1816 to be precise), Frankenstein is heavy going today. Even so, the combination of the then very new possibilities of electricity, the macabre biology of the recreated man, and the creation's philosophical musings (the original creature was anything but a grunting monster) are worth battling with.