Frankenstein (World's Classics S.) - Softcover

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192822837 ISBN 13: 9780192822833

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 1994

Synopsis

"Frankenstein was Mary Shelley's powerful contribution to the ghost stories which she, Percy Shelley and Byron wrote one wet summer in Switzerland. It tells the story of how a young student of natural philosophy learns the secret of imparting life to a creature constructed from relics of the dead, with horrific consequences. The story confronts some of the most feared innovations of evolutionism - topics such as degeneracy, hereditary disease and mankind's status as a species of animal. The text used here is the 1818 edition, which is a mocking expose of leaders and achievers who leave desolation in their wake, showing mankind its choice - to live co-operatively or to die of selfishness. It is also a black comedy, and harder and wittier than the 1831 edition, with which readers are more familiar. Drawing on new research, Marilyn Butler examines the novel in the context of the radical sciences, which were developing among much controversy in the years following the Napoleonic Wars, and shows how Frankenstein's experiment relateds to a contemporary debate between the champions of materialist science and of received religion. Marilyn Butler is the editor of Shelley's "The Last Man", co-editor (with Pickering) of Works of Mary Wollstonecraft", and the author of "Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries".

About this title

Review

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century Gothicism. While stay-ing in the Swiss Alps in 1816 with her lover Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, Mary, then eighteen, began to concoct the story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the monster he brings to life by electricity. Written in a time of great personal tragedy, it is a subversive and morbid story warning against the dehumanization of art and the corrupting influence of science. Packed with allusions and literary references, it is also one of the best thrillers ever written. Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus was an instant bestseller on publication in 1818. The prototype of the science fiction novel, it has spawned countless imitations and adaptations but retains its original power.
This Modern Library edition includes a new Introduction by Wendy Steiner, the chair of the English department at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Scandal of Pleasure.
Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in 1797 in London. She eloped to France with Shelley, whom she married in 1816. After Frankenstein, she wrote several novels, including Valperga and Falkner, and edited editions of the poetry of Shelley, who had died in 1822. Mary Shelley died in London in 1851.

From the Publisher

Contains an 8-page plate section with long-unavailable pictures and drawings relating to Mary Shelley and Frankstein. Thoroughly edited and extensively annotated. Includes a 10,000-word section on Mary Shelley's life and works, with a longer chapter on Frankstein, anecdotes, critical perspectives, adaptations and spin-offs. Lavishly produced on natural, high-quality paper, and affordably priced.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192822837
• ISBN 13: 9780192822833
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 261