Frankenstein: or `The Modern Prometheus': The 1818 TextBy the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window-shutters, I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened...' Frankenstein is the most celebrated horror story ever written. It tells the dreadful tale of Victor Frankenstein, a visionary young student of natural philosophy, who discovers the secret of life. In the grip of his obsession he constructs a being from dead body parts, and animates this creature. The results, for Victor and for his family, are catastrophic. Written when Mary Shelley was just eighteen, Frankenstein was inspired by the ghost stories and vogue for Gothic literature that fascinated the Romantic writers of her time. She transformed these supernatural elements an epic parable that warned against the threats to humanity posed by accelerating technological progress. Published for the 200th anniversary, this edition, based on the original 1818 text, explains in detail the turbulent intellectual context in which Shelley was writing, and also investigates how her novel has since become a byword for controversial practices in science and medicine, from manipulating ecosystems to vivisection and genetic modification. As an iconic study of power, creativity, and, ultimately, what it is to be human, Frankenstein continues to shape our thinking in profound ways to this day. |
From inside the book
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Page xi
... Godwin, and the trailblazing feminist theorist and author Mary Wollstonecraft.9 Shelley was born in the international turbulence of the 1790s: the decade of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin bore both ...
... Godwin, and the trailblazing feminist theorist and author Mary Wollstonecraft.9 Shelley was born in the international turbulence of the 1790s: the decade of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin bore both ...
Page xii
... Godwin was the darling of the English Jacobins (supporters of the French Revolutionaries). His Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness was published in February 1793, and established him as a ...
... Godwin was the darling of the English Jacobins (supporters of the French Revolutionaries). His Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness was published in February 1793, and established him as a ...
Page xiii
... Godwin's equal as an innovative and hugely influential thinker as the author of, among many other works, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792; pointedly inspired by Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, 1791). Like Godwin, Wollstonecraft ...
... Godwin's equal as an innovative and hugely influential thinker as the author of, among many other works, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792; pointedly inspired by Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, 1791). Like Godwin, Wollstonecraft ...
Page xiv
... Godwin household shared two parents: Fanny was Wollstonecraft's first illegitimate daughter, fathered by the diplomat and adventurer Gilbert Imlay, Mary her second child by Godwin, William was the son of Mary Jane and Godwin, and Mary ...
... Godwin household shared two parents: Fanny was Wollstonecraft's first illegitimate daughter, fathered by the diplomat and adventurer Gilbert Imlay, Mary her second child by Godwin, William was the son of Mary Jane and Godwin, and Mary ...
Page xix
... Godwin, Shelley's halfsister.32 By the time Percy got to Bristol, Fanny had committed suicide through an overdose of laudanum. Two months later came the news that Percy's estranged wife Harriet had been found dead in the Serpentine in ...
... Godwin, Shelley's halfsister.32 By the time Percy got to Bristol, Fanny had committed suicide through an overdose of laudanum. Two months later came the news that Percy's estranged wife Harriet had been found dead in the Serpentine in ...
Contents
ix | |
Note on the Text | li |
Select Bibliography | lvi |
A Chronology of Mary Shelley | lxiii |
In three volumes | 1 |
Dedication | 3 |
Preface | 5 |
FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS | 7 |
APPENDIX A AUTHORS INTRODUCTION TO THE STANDARD NOVELS EDITION 1831 | 173 |
SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES | 178 |
APPENDIX C ON FRANKENSTEIN BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY | 199 |
EXPLANATORY NOTES | 201 |
Other editions - View all
Frankenstein: or `The Modern Prometheus': The 1818 Text Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Limited preview - 2018 |
Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus: The 1818 Text Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Limited preview - 2018 |
Frankenstein: Or The Modern Prometheus' - The 1818 Text Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley No preview available - 2019 |
Common terms and phrases
affection animal appeared arrived beautiful became become believe body called cause child Clerval companion concerning continued cottage cousin creature dark dead dear death delight described desire despair destroyed discovered edition Elizabeth endeavoured endured entered existence expressed eyes father fear feelings Felix felt followed Frankenstein Geneva Godwin hands happy heard heart History hope horror human idea imagination Italy Justine kind lake language leave letter light live London looked Lost manner Mary means mind miserable monster months mountains murderer nature nearly never night novel opened passed Percy Shelley philosophy pleasure poor possessed present Press Prometheus published reflected remained rest scene seemed Shelley Shelley’s sometimes soon spirit story suffered tale tears thing thought turned University Victor visited voice wish wonder wretch writing