Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Penguin Classics)

New York: Penguin Books, 2003. Reprint. Trade Paperback. Fine. 7x5x0. Reprint. An exceptional copy. 2003 Trade Paperback. lxiii, 273 pp., 10-page terminal publisher ad. Edited with introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century Gothicism. While staying 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 (truncated) 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. 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." CONTENTS: Chronology; Introduction by Maurice Hindle; Further Reading; Note on the Text; Author's Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition (1831); Preface (by Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818); Volume One; Volume Two; Volume Three; Appendix I: Select Collation of the Texts of 1831 and 1818; Appendix II: 'A Fragment' by Lord Byron; Appendix III: 'The Vampyre: A Tale' by Dr John William Polidori; Notes. (Inventory #: 2341709)