Editing Mad scientist (section)

===Prototypes===
[[File:The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) trailer - Peter Cushing experimenting 2.png|right|thumb|[[Peter Cushing]] as [[Victor Frankenstein]] in ''[[The Curse of Frankenstein]]''  (1957)]]
The prototypical fictional mad scientist was [[Victor Frankenstein]], creator of his [[Frankenstein's monster|eponymous monster]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Encyclopædia Britannica - Frankenstein|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Frankenstein|access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Clemens|first1=Valdine|title=Return of the Repressed, The: Gothic Horror from The Castle of Otranto to Alien|page=93|publisher=State University of New York Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QwYpYZ7rndMC&q=prototypical+mad+scientist+frankenstein&pg=PA93|access-date=10 November 2015|isbn=9780791499276}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Daniel H.|last2=Long|first2=Anna C.|title=The Mad Scientist Hall of Fame|isbn=978-0806528793|page=100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpjV_w7R_roC&q=prototypical+mad+scientist+frankenstein&pg=PA100|access-date=10 November 2015|date=2008-08-01|publisher=Kensington Publishing Corp. }}</ref> who made his first appearance in 1818, in the novel ''[[Frankenstein|Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus]]'' by [[Mary Shelley]]. Though the novel's title character, Victor Frankenstein, is a sympathetic character, the critical element of conducting experiments that cross "boundaries that ought not to be crossed", heedless of the consequences, is present in Shelley's novel. Frankenstein was trained as both an [[alchemist]] and a modern scientist, which makes him the bridge between two eras of an evolving archetype. The book is said to be a precursor of a new genre, [[science fiction]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abrams |first1=M. H. |last2=Harpham |first2=Geoffrey |title=A Glossary of Literary Terms |page=355 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7-iAgAAQBAJ&q=frankenstein+precursor+of+science+fiction&pg=PA355|access-date=10 November 2015|isbn=9781285974514 |date=2014-01-01 |publisher=Cengage Learning }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Corbett|first1=Robert|title=Romanticism and Science Fictions |journal=Romanticism on the Net|issue=21|pages=0|doi=10.7202/005970ar|year=2001}}</ref> although as an example of [[Gothic fiction|gothic horror]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tweg |first1=Sue |last2=Shelley |first2=Mary Wollstonecraft |last3=Edwards|first3=Kim|title=Frankenstein|page=13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udZvmYZikfQC&q=frankenstein+gothic+horror&pg=PA13|access-date=10 November 2015|isbn=9781921411397 |date=August 2011 |publisher=Insight Publications }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Jelinek|first1=Kenneth P.|title=Gothic Horror and Scientific Education in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein|date=1997}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Frankenstein as a Gothic Novel|url=http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/frankenstein/critical-essays/frankenstein-as-a-gothic-novel|access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Frankenstein as a Gothic Fiction|url=http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanfiction/frankenstein-as-a-gothic-fiction.html|website=bachelorandmaster.com|access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref> it is connected with other antecedents as well.

The year 1896 saw the publication of [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]],'' in which the titular doctor—a controversial [[vivisection]]ist—has isolated himself entirely from civilisation in order to continue his experiments in surgically [[Uplift (science fiction)|reshaping animals into humanoid forms]], heedless of the suffering he causes.<ref>{{cite web|title=Novels: The Island of Doctor Moreau|url=http://academic.depauw.edu/aevans_web/HONR101-02/WebPages/Spring2006/Schmid(Todd)/wells.html|access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref>  In 1925, the novelist [[Alexander Belyaev]] introduced mad scientists to the Russian people through the novel ''[[Professor Dowell's Head]]'', in which the antagonist performs experimental head transplants on bodies stolen from the morgue, and reanimates the corpses.