Frankenstein: or `The Modern Prometheus': The 1818 Text [Hardcover]

Frankensteinis 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,Frankensteinwas inspired by the ghost stories and vogue for Gothic literature that fascinated the Romantic writers of her time. She transformed these supernatural elements into 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,Frankensteincontinues to shape our thinking in profound ways to this day.

Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Mary Shelley
FRANKENSTEIN
Appendix A. Author's Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition (1831)
Appendix B. The Third Edition (1831): Substantive Changes
Appendix C. On Frankenstein by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Explanatory Notes

Ranked #24 inNewsweek's Top 50 Books You Should Read to Understand the Way We Live Now