Frankenstein » (Revised Text Edition (1831))

Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin on August 30, 1797 in London, the daughter of William Godwin--a radical philosopher and novelist, and Mary Wollstonecraft--a renowned feminist and the author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She eloped to France with Shelley in 1814, although they were not married until 1816, after the suicide of his first wife. She began work on Frankenstein in 1816 in Switzerland, while they were staying with Lord Byron, and it was published in 1818 to immediate acclaim. She died in London in 1851.

The original, 1818 text of the Classic novel.

James Hynes

. . .[T]he novel Frankenstein is quite a read. . . .It's highly Romantic, in the literary sense. . .[there is] a good deal of attractive torment and self-doubt, from both Victor Frankenstein and his creation. . . .If ever a book needed to be placed in context, it's Frankenstein. —The New York Times Book Review

Part I: Frankenstein: The Complete Text
• Introduction
• The Complete Text
• Print Document
• Visual Documents
• Part II: Frankenstein: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism
• A Psychoanalytic Perspective: David Collings, "The Monster and the Imaginary Monster: A Lacanian Reading of Frankenstein"
• A Marxist Perspective: Warren Montag, "'The Workshop of Filthy Creation': A Marxist Reading of Frankenstein"
• A Feminist Perspective: Johanna M. Smith, "'Cooped Up: Feminine Domesticity in Frankenstein"
• New A Gender Critic's Perspective: Frann Michel, "Lesbian Panic and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"
• New A Cultural Critic's Perspective: Bouriana Zakharieva, "Frankenstein of the Nineties: The Composite Body"
• New Combining Perspectives: Fred Botting, "Reflections of Excess: Frankenstein, the French Revolution, and Monstrosity"