Heads is a novel in the Frankenstein tradition: a cautionary tale about people meddling with God's powers. In the early 1800s, while staying in the home of Lord Byron in Switzerland, Mary Shelley had a dream that she shared with Byron and other guests during a parlor game in which each person told a scary story. Inspired by a dream in which a monstrous being pulled aside her bed curtains and looked at her while she slept, Shelley created a story of a frightful being who is brought to life in a scientific experiment. This story became the novel Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus. The subtitle refers to the Greek god who brought fire to humanity against the wishes of Zeus, symbolic in Shelley's tale of Frankenstein, who usurps God's power to create life.

The novel has been a powerful influence on literature ever since its...