A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

Gr 5-8–In April, 1815, the Tambora volcano eruption on Sumbawa Island in what is now Indonesia pulverized 5,000 feet of the mountain’s slope, launching a plume of ash 27 miles into the sky. The death toll, though uncertain, may have reached over 100,000, taking into account starvation and disease. But the long-term effects were much greater and farther reaching. Worldwide climate disruption from airborne ash caused drought in some areas and flooding in others, frigid temperatures in New England’s summer, and starvation leading to food riots across Europe. It was during this climate shift that 16-year-old Mary Godwin scandalously eloped to Switzerland with the already married Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Forced to remain inside due to incessant cold rain, the author, now Mary Shelley, conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein as part of a horror story contest with her husband and also fellow poet Lord Byron. Day makes the case that many references and themes in the novel are drawn directly from her experiences that year and that the story itself constitutes a climate change novel, drawing parallels and contrasts with our own current climate emergency. The volume concludes with an eight-page bibliography and extensive source notes. The writing assumes a tone that seems intended to be colloquial and informal, but too often tilts into a high style that can feel glib and pedantic.