The end of the Restoration ushered in a new era of English literature. The idea of society as a whole was depicted more often in the literary works as one may see in Shelley's Frankenstein, a story of a forlorn monster, or through Dickens" Oliver Twist, a story of social influences on a small child's life. These authors deviated from the early focus on individuals as till the Restoration era (e.g. Gulliver's Travels - focus on Gulliver and his accounts) to a focus on the society (e.g. Charles Dickens" Oliver Twist - focus on the social influences on a small child's life). More noticeable, amongst the authors of this latter period, is the deviation from genius in romanticism towards permutation in modernism. The works that would best depict the transition are Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - a tale of an experiment gone wild, Charles Dickens" Oliver Twist - the story of an orphan facing the realities of the world at too tender an age, and Yeats" poems that offer a glimpse of the modernist views held by the people of the era, such as the Bloomsbury Group. The English slowly accepted the intermingling of art and literature with commercialism, as is evident in Dickens" Oliver Twist, which is set right in the heart of metropolitan London. Shelley's Frankenstein, which is the tale of an experiment gone wild provokes against improper manifestation of man's scientific prowess, as attempted by Victor Frankenstein. This science fiction tragedy however contrasts with Dickens" Oliver Twist, where the hero rises above most of the characters, to finally lead a serene and respectable life. However, the desire for a better order was not dampened and the modernist authors stood to make a point - noticeably Yeats with his Byzantium poems.
As the daughter of noted writers and philosophers, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley's headway into the literary world was certainly expectable. Shelley's most notable work would be Frankenstein that was inspired by Lord Byron's proposition on writing a ghost story.
