Mary Shelley

For the bicentennial of its first publication, Mary Shelley’s original 1818 text, introduced by National Book Critics Circle award-winner Charlotte Gordon. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read 2018 marks the bicentennial of Mary Shelley’s seminal novel. For the first time, Penguin Classics will publish the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically-charged aspects of Shelley’s original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also emphasizes Shelley’s relationship with her mother—trailblazing feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who penned A Vindication of the Rights of Woman—and demonstrates her commitment to carrying forward her mother’s ideals, placing her in the context of a feminist legacy rather than the sole female in the company of male poets, including Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. This edition includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by National Book Critics Circle award-winner and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon, and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Devin Ware

My heart is heavy. In a good way, but still...
This is actually my third time reading this book. I've never read the 1831 version that used to be so popular (should really do that sometime), because this was the edition my professor specified in the first class for which I ever had to read this book. I read it again for a different class a couple of years later, and finally I picked it up yesterday to read it again, this time simply for myself. 

It is such an ugly story, told with such a beautiful voice. This is a tragedy and a horror related to us by a voice that has not inured itself to tragedy and horror. Any scene of happiness that comes along in the narrative is given to us with such joy and wonder and sincerity that it is obvious that this is the state that the narrator would always stay in, given the opportunity. It is like reading the thoughts of an elf, so at home in beauty and yet never bored of it, always struck with delight at the sights, sounds, feelings that surround it. 

That is what makes this different from any other horror/science fiction novel I have ever read. It feels so violating, so impure, because the voice describing these monstrosities feels more suited for poetry, the kind of poetry that makes someone happy to be alive and moving about in the world. To go with this voice as it is driven deeper and deeper into despair... It made my heart sink, and I finished the book only to stare at the ceiling, trying to collect myself. Yes, you can get the story from watching an adaptation, whether it be for stage or screen, but this, this experience, you can only get by reading the book. Make sure you're emotionally ready, but once you are: I cannot recommend this book enough. Genuinely one of my favorites.

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

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