Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus: The 1818 Text - Softcover

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226752275 ISBN 13: 9780226752273

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1982

Synopsis

The definitive edition of the original version of Mary Shelley's enduring classic

When Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818, she created a legend that, like the monster of her story, grew far beyond anything she could ever have dreamed of, or that anyone could ever control. With one book, she founded the field of science fiction, pushed the gothic into new territory, and gave us an unforgettable character capable of simultaneously being monster, man, and metaphor, a symbol simultaneously of the potential and perils of science--even of humanity itself.

The novel was originally published in three volumes in March 1818, In 1831, a different publisher issued a single-volume edition that had been heavily rewritten by an older Mary Shelley. That edition served as the standard Frankenstein for well over a century. In recent decades, however, growing awareness of the role of Shelley's husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, in the revision process, and corresponding interest in giving readers access to the original text from Mary Shelley's hand, has led to increasing attention to the original 1818 edition.

This edition reproduces the text of the 1818 edition with the addition, clearly indicated within the book, of minor changes that Mary Shelley made by hand in 1823. It also preserves the original three-volume structure within this single book, helping readers better understand the symmetries within the story as Shelley constructed it. Explanatory notes, meanwhile, explain references and provide historical and cultural context.

The result is a new look at a lasting classic, one that has as much to say to readers today as it did when first published more than two centuries ago.

About this title

About the Author

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) was the daughter of novelist and political philosopher William Godwin and radical writer and pioneer of women's rights Mary Wollstonecraft, who died when Mary was an infant. Though she received no formal education, many of England's leading writers and intellectuals were frequent guests in her father's house. In 1814, she met the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; the two were married in 1816. Shelley wrote many novels and remarkable essays and "rambles" or travel books during her lifetime, though she is best known for Frankenstein: Or a Modern Prometheus, which she first published anonymously in 1818 and subsequently revised and republished in 1823 and 1831. Shelley's other novels include Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837). Her novella, Maurice, or The Fisher's Cot was not published until 1998.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226752275
• ISBN 13: 9780226752273
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 334
• Editor: Rieger James