Many moons agao, we did a Roundtable discussion on Frankenstein.  I need to pull it out again and watch it to get the thrust of the whole conversation, but our question put to the panelists was could it qualify as the first science fiction novel.

I love teaching this book, despite the poddy prose, to my juniors.  They really get into the story and do feel a certain about of pity for the monster.

I don't know if I would call it science fiction though.  Falling into the Romantic period of literature, I might classify more as a fantasy myself.