In this series we turn the pages of classic short stories to put together the literary building blocks of how a particular genre or theme began, how it built its foundations to become the well-loved and well-worn genre that it is today.Do authors have the same ideas at more or less the same time? Or can they sniff out an opportunity as to which way the tastes of an audience are moving. Success undoubtedly builds success and in literary terms we can more politely say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the surest way to reach a hungry readership is to build on the fortune and flair of your literary colleagues. In literary terms it seems you are never more than half a dozen stories away from a mad scientist. True or not it’s a given that they are amongst the most entertaining of protagonists and one of the go-to characters for authors down the ages. In this volume we explore everything from the seemingly plausible to the obviously mad-cap and, of course, each narrative is driven by a character full of ideas but missing a button or two of common sense.01 - Foundations of Fiction - Mad Scientists - An Introduction2 - Herbert West - Re-Animator by H P Lovecraft3 - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson4 - The Facts in the Case of Monsieur Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe5 - Doctor Heidegger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne6 - The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley7 - A Thousand Deaths by Jack London8 - A Diagnosis of Death by Ambrose Bierce9 - Carnivorine by Lucy Hamilton Hooper10 - Lost Hearts by M R James11 - The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne12 - The Blue Laboratory by L T Meade13 - The Man Without a Body by Edward Page Mitchell14 - The Moaning Lily by Emma Vane15 - The Love Germ by Constance Cotterell16 - Cool Air by H P Lovecraft17 - The Freezing of London by Herbert C Ridout18 - Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne