Carta is Latin and Italian for "paper" and is Spanish and Portuguese "letter". In English it takes the form "card" or "chart". Most of its uses pertain to its meaning as "paper", "chart", or "map", for example in Magna Carta.

Mary Shelley created a horror fiction unlike the ghost stories of the time when writing Frankenstein. The creation of the monster within the story is not the scare factor, and in reality, the work is not scary in the same fashion as most horror fiction pieces.

Frankenstein is often categorized as a horror novel, and for good reason. The story of Victor Frankenstein's creation of a creature so unnatural that it haunts him into the grave can evoke fear and dread in even the most daring reader. Yet at its core, this classic tale also contains elements of science fiction.