To fully understand Frankenstein's major success knowing what the story is about will help gain a sense of how she wrote while adding major accomplishments of her time such as chemistry into her novel. The story begins with Robert Walton, an explorer trying to find a passage through the Arctic ocean. While on his travels he find a man near death drifting on a piece of ice. The rescued man Victor Frankenstein reveals to Walton how he became haunted by a monster ( Frankenstein Summary - eNotes). Victor grew up a brilliant child in Geneva, Switzerland to a wealthy family. After leaving for the University of Ingolstadt he becomes obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. He begins to build a creature out of a series of body parts he stole from cemeteries. Using chemistry and electricity be brings his creature to life, but runs away and abandons his creature at the sight of his hideous appearance (Frankenstein Summary - eNotes) Alone the creature begins to wander the countryside and hiding in a forest, completely unaware of his ugliness. During his time alone and rejected by humans he taught himself to read and understand human language. The creature starts to understand that Victor, his creator, is the cause of his misery.