Mash(ed) Up: Maidens, Monsters, and Mad Scientists

In neo-Victorian young adult narratives, authors return to the figure of the “mad scientist” to reinterrogate the assumption of male dominion over science, women as objects of experimentation, and ethical concerns over transgressive scientific practices. In Megan Shepherd’s trilogy—The Madman’s Daughter (2013), Her Dark Curiosity (2014), and A Cold Legacy (2016)—and Theodora Goss’ Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club—The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (2017), European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman (2018), and The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerising Girl (2019)—the texts focus on the narratives of young women who are either the biological or scientifically created children of their scientist fathers, men whose motives are by turns questionable and corrupt. These stories, of females who are othered in various ways, show how they seek to reframe science and systems of knowledge-seeking as no longer the property of their male fathers.