Frankenstein: The Original 1818 'uncensored' Edition by 
Frankenstein by
The original 1818 text of Mary Shelley's classic novel, with annotations and essays highlighting its scientific, ethical, and cautionary aspects. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has endured in the popular imagination for two hundred years. Begun as a ghost story by an intellectually and socially precocious eighteen-year-old author during a cold and rainy summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, the dramatic tale of Victor Frankenstein and his stitched-together creature can be read as the ultimate parable of scientific hubris. Victor, "the modern Prometheus," tried to do what he perhaps should have left to Nature: create life. Although the novel is most often discussed in literary-historical terms -- as a seminal example of romanticism or as a groundbreaking early work of science fiction -- Mary Shelley was keenly aware of contemporary scientific developments and incorporated them into her story. In our era of synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and climate engineering, this edition of Frankenstein will resonate forcefully for readers with a background or interest in science and engineering, and anyone intrigued by the fundamental questions of creativity and responsibility. This edition of Frankenstein pairs the original 1818 version of the manuscript -- meticulously line-edited and amended by Charles E. Robinson, one of the world's preeminent authorities on the text -- with annotations and essays by leading scholars exploring the social and ethical aspects of scientific creativity raised by this remarkable story. The result is a unique and accessible edition of one of the most thought-provoking and influential novels ever written. Essays byElizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, Heather E. Douglas, Josephine Johnston, Kate MacCord, Jane Maienschein, Anne K. Mellor, Alfred Nordmann
Frankenstein by
Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, was completed by Mary Shelley at the age of 19. She infused this original novel with Gothic and Romantic elements. Scientist Victor Frankenstein creates a large and powerful creature in the likeness of man, but is disgusted by his own creation and he abandons the being to fend for itself. Spawning generations of horror stories in the genre, Frankenstein is a gruesome warning against playing God and attempting the engineering...
Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley's poignant exploration of the true depths of ambition and humanity has had a profound effect on readers since its conception in 1816. When scientist Victor Frankenstein forms a creature from the body parts of corpses, thus shattering the perceived limits of scientific understanding, the consequences are devastating on both a personal and a wider level. Our natural sympathies are challenged as Frankenstein becomes disgusted with his creation, who, in turn, begins to suffer from an acute sense of loneliness. When his desire for a companion is thwarted, he vows to take revenge upon Frankenstein. What ensues is singularly chilling in this gothic classic, which has spawned numerous film and theatre interpretations.
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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by
-- Presents concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on a specific literary work -- Provides multiple sources for book reports and term papers with a wealth of information on literary works, authors, and major characters -- Digests of critical extracts prefaced by headnotes
Frankenstein: Character Studies by
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most widely read novels of all time. Its two central characters, the scientist Victor Frankenstein and the being he creates, have gained mythic status in their own right. Engaging with the novel's characterization is crucial to gaining a real understanding of its themes and contexts, including education, gender difference, imperialism, personal identity, revolutionary politics, and science. This study includes: an introductory overview of the novel, including a brief account of its historical and literary contexts; its reception history; discussion of the major themes and narrative structure; detailed analysis of, the representation of main characters, such as Walton, Frankenstein, and the creature; and a conclusion reminding students of the links between the characters and the key themes and issues.
Shelley's Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley's classic gothic novel, Frankenstein, is one of the most widely studied novels in English Literature. Due to its key position in the canon and its wide cultural influence, the novel has been the subject of many interpretations, which require some guidance to navigate. This book offers an authoritative, up-to-date guide for students, introducing its context, language, themes, criticism and afterlife, leading them to a more sophisticated understanding of the text. Graham Allen places Frankenstein in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, offering analyses of its themes, style and structure, providing exemplary close readings, and presenting an up-to-date account of its critical reception. It also includes an introduction to its substantial history as an adapted text on stage and screen and its wider influence in film and popular culture. It includes points for discussion, suggestions for further study and an annotated guide to relevant reading.
Haunted Presence by
Are ghosts, vampires, and other forms of " haunted presence" related to universal religious instincts? Are emotions that play a part in religious ritual and narrative similar to those in classical works of Gothic fiction such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, and the tales of Edgar Allan Poe? Haunted Presence: The Numinous in Gothic Fiction reveals the intersection of Gothic literature and contemporary theories about the psychology of religious experience, positing that the two share the concept of the numinous, the human response of awe in the face of the eternal. Varnado offers a fresh and audacious analysis of the literature of the supernatural by employing insights derived from the philosophy of religious experience. Ranging from the Gothic novel of the eighteenth century to ghostly tales from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Varnado frames ghost stories as ontological challenge to the reader. The challenge is not in the form of philosophical proposition, however. Rather it is in the form of feelings and emotions that maintain a connection with the sense of reality. It is this area of reality that Rudolph Otto called the numinous-- the feeling of the supernatural-- that stands at the center of Gothic literature. An understanding of this unique category of experience, aligned with its associated concept of " the sacred and the profane," exposes the purpose of ghostly literature and demonstrates the enduring relevance of this mesmerizing genre.
The Other Mary Shelley by
This volume comprises 15 critical essays written by some of the most eminent Romantic scholars in academia. The essays survey the oeuvre of Mary Shelley as it developed beyond Frankenstein, and evaluate her career in terms of her intellectual and political accomplishments.
A Life with Mary Shelley by
In 1980, deconstructive and psychoanalytic literary theorist Barbara Johnson wrote an essay on Mary Shelley for a colloquium on the writings of Jacques Derrida. The essay marked the beginning of Johnson's lifelong interest in Shelley as well as her first foray into the field of "women's studies," one of whose commitments was the rediscovery and analysis of works by women writers previously excluded from the academic canon. Indeed, the last book Johnson completed before her death was Mary Shelley and Her Circle, published here for the first time. Shelley was thus the subject for Johnson's beginning in feminist criticism and also for her end. It is surprising to recall that when Johnson wrote her essay, only two of Shelley's novels were in print, critics and scholars having mostly dismissed her writing as inferior and her career as a side effect of her famous husband's. Inspired by groundbreaking feminist scholarship of the seventies, Johnson came to pen yet more essays on Shelley over the course of a brilliant but tragically foreshortened career. So much of what we know and think about Mary Shelley today is due to her and a handful of scholars working just decades ago. In this volume, Judith Butler and Shoshana Felman have united all of Johnson's published and unpublished work on Shelley alongside their own new, insightful pieces of criticism and those of two other peers and fellow pioneers in feminist theory, Mary Wilson Carpenter and Cathy Caruth. The book thus evolves as a conversation amongst key scholars of shared intellectual inclinations while closing the circle on Johnson's life and her own fascination with the life and circle of another woman writer, who, of course, also happened to be the daughter of a founder of modern feminism.
Mary Shelley by
Painting a portrait of a gothic icon, this biography recounts Mary Shelley's dramatic life, from her youth and turbulent marriage to her career as writer and editor. At the age of 20, Mary Shelley secured her place in history by writing Frankenstein, now acknowledged as one of the great literary classics. The daughter of radical philosopher William Godwin and pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley led an unconventional life, which is depicted--with previously unpublished material--in this remarkable biography that was originally released in 1987 as a thorough revision of Muriel Spark's 1951 book Child of Light. Spark lends her own talents as an accomplished writer and her sharp intelligence to this fascinating examination of Mary Shelley's life and writings.
Mary Shelley in Her Times by
Author of six novels, five volumes of biographical lives, two travel books, and numerous short stories, essays, and reviews, Mary Shelley is largely remembered as the author of Frankenstein, as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and as the daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. This collection of essays, edited by Betty T. Bennett and Stuart Curran, offers a more complete and complex picture of Mary Shelley, emphasizing the full range and significance of her writings in terms of her own era and ours. Mary Shelley in Her Times brings fresh insight to the life and work of an often neglected or misunderstood writer who, the editors remind us, spent nearly three decades at the center of England's literary world during the country's profound transition between the Romantic and Victorian eras. The essays in this volume demonstrate the importance of Mary Shelley's neglected novels, including Matilda, Valperga, The Last Man, and Falkner. Other topics include Mary Shelley's work in various literary genres, her editing of her husband's poetry and prose, her politics, and her trajectory as a female writer. This volume advances Mary Shelley studies to a new level of discourse and raises important issues for English Romanticism and women's studies.
Mary Shelley: Her Circle and Her Contemporaries by
This collection of essays expands critical consideration of Mary Shelley's placement within the age we call Romantic, wherein her texts converse with those of her family, her circle, and her contemporaries. Several essays address particularly how her texts interact with those of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, revealing new depth and breadth to their literary partnership. Others investigate interdisciplinary perspectives, such as her pieces in The Liberal or the ways in which the figure of Scheherezade haunts her works, while several essays also consider Mary Shelley's textual relationships with contemporaries such as Thomas Moore and John Polidori. Still others tackle topics such as geopolitical relationships and the growth of opera as an art form, considering Mary Shelley's commentary upon such contemporary issues, while William Godwin's textual relationship with his daughter is further investigated. This collection suggests Mary Shelley's texts merit further investigation not only for what they reveal about their author and her oeuvre, but for the ways in which they illuminate our understanding of the contexts in which they were composed.