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Original & Modernized

Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley · 1818

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at nineteen, and published it anonymously in 1818 after a now-legendary ghost-story challenge among Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, John Polidori, and herself during a rain-bound summer at Lake Geneva; this edition preserves that original 1818 text, before Shelley's more moralizing 1831 revision added the introduction and softened passages later readers know best. Told through Robert Walton's letters to his sister, then Victor Frankenstein's confession, then the creature's own account nested within it, the novel is less a monster story than a study of a man who creates life and abandons it, and of the being who is denied a name, a companion, and any place among humankind as a consequence. Its horror comes not from violence but from isolation, responsibility, and the cruelty of being unloved for one's appearance alone — themes that have kept it urgent well past the Gothic and early-science-fiction traditions it helped found.

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Contents

  1. Opening pages5 items
  2. 1Letter 112 items
  3. 2Letter 2Members
  4. 3Letter 3Members
  5. 4Letter 4Members
  6. 5Chapter 1Members
  7. 6Chapter 2Members
  8. 7Chapter 3Members
  9. 8Chapter 4Members
  10. 9Chapter 5Members
  11. 10Chapter 6Members
  12. 11Chapter 7Members
  13. 12Chapter 8Members
  14. 13Chapter 9Members
  15. 14Chapter 10Members
  16. 15Chapter 11Members
  17. 16Chapter 12Members
  18. 17Chapter 13Members
  19. 18Chapter 14Members
  20. 19Chapter 15Members
  21. 20Chapter 16Members
  22. 21Chapter 17Members
  23. 22Chapter 18Members
  24. 23Chapter 19Members
  25. 24Chapter 20Members
  26. 25Chapter 21Members
  27. 26Chapter 22Members
  28. 27Chapter 23Members
  29. 28Chapter 24Members

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