Frankenstein (NCE) (Norton Critical Editions) - Softcover

Shelley, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393964582 ISBN 13: 9780393964585

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., 1996

Synopsis

This "Norton Critical Edition" of "Frankenstein" contains the 1818 first edition text. Only the obvious typographical errors have been corrected. The book also includes writings by Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and John William Polidori, enabling the reader to place the novel in its historical context. Six 19th-century responses to the novel illustrate contemporary reactions, whilst 12 modern critical essays cover the different aspects (psychoanalytic, mythic, feminist) of the work.

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0393964582
• ISBN 13: 9780393964585
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352