Atlantic oops

The Atlantic now has a trivia game (gift link). The first installment gave me pause. Its third question:

Dealing as much with loss and grief as with physical monstrosity, what Victorian epistolary novel was referred to by its young author as her “hideous progeny”?

No. No. It’s not a Victorian novel.

Spoiler approaching:

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818. A revised version appeared in 1831. Queen Victoria’s long reign began in 1837.