''Frankenstein's Aunt'' () is a

horror novel Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defi ...

Allan Rune Pettersson Allan Rune Pettersson (9 March 1936 – 15 August 2018) was a Swedish author. After a varied career as a producer of children's programmes on Swedish radio and later as an innkeeper in Portugal, he became a freelance writer on his return to Swe ...

, first published in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 1978.

Story

The book is about Hannah Frankenstein, the Baron's aunt, who comes to

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

's Castle to put it back in order, following the chaos caused by her nephew's experiments. There, she meets the unusual inhabitants of the castle, which, apart from

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster, commonly referred to as Frankenstein, is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' as its main antagonist. Shelley's title compares the monster's ...

, also include

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been i ...

and

Larry Talbot Lawrence Stewart Talbot, also known as the Wolf Man, is the title character of the 1941 Universal film '' The Wolf Man'' and its sequels, created by Curt Siodmak. He was portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. In the 2010 remake of the film, he is portr ...

the

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

Background

The book is an homage to the Universal Horror Frankenstein films of the 1930s and 1940s. Its title is an untranslatable

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

: in Swedish, Frankenstein's mother's sister would be his "moster" whereas his father's sister is his "faster". So, instead of Frankenstein's mo ter, we have his faster, which is not only a pun but an

alliteration Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. A common example is " Pe ...

Sources

* Allan Rune Pettersson: ''Frankenstein's Aunt'', 1978 Swedish novels 1978 fantasy novels 1970s horror novels Swedish fantasy novels Frankenstein novels Swedish-language novels Novels set in castles Dracula novels {{1970s-horror-novel-stub de:Frankensteins Tante