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Biographical note
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in 1797, the daughter of two leading radical writers. Her mother died just days after her birth and Mary was educated at home by her father, who encouraged her literary pursuits. She eloped with and subsequently married the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, but their life together was full of hardship. The couple were ruined by disapproving parents and Mary lost three of her four children. Although its subject matter was extremely dark, her first novel, Frankenstein, was an instant sensation. Subsequent works such as Mathilda and The Last Man were initially less successful but are now finally receiving the critical acclaim they deserve. Mary Shelley died in 1851, aged fifty-three.Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is the world's greatest horror story. Now published as part of the Macmillan Collector's Library Classic Horror series - a beautiful new collection of neon paperbacks featuring our most beloved and feared monsters and misfits.
Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but wayward scientist, builds a human from dead flesh. Horrified at what he has done, he abandons his creation. The hideous creature learns language and becomes civilized but society rejects him. Spurned, he seeks vengeance on his creator. So begins a cycle of destruction, with Frankenstein and his ‘monster’ pursuing each other to the extremes of nature until all vestiges of their humanity are lost.
In 1831, Mary Shelley succumbed to conservative pressures and toned down elements of the work in a second version of the text, which is reproduced here.