Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
Dec 1st, 2006 by Bauman
“I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then…show signs of life and stir…” - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
On a stormy June evening in 1816, 19-year-old Mary Shelley was in Geneva with her husband Percy, her step-sister Claire Clairmont, Claire’s lover Lord Byron and Byron’s physician John Polidori. As the evening progressed, the group’s discussion turned to the supernatural. Byron challenged each member of the party to write a tale.
In the days that followed, Polidori and Byron both produced vampire stories and Mary Shelley conceived the story that would become Frankenstein. As she noted in her introduction to the 1831 third edition of the novel, “My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me…I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, shoe signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion…He sleeps; but he is awakened; he opens his eyes; behold, the horrid thing stands at his [creator's] bedside…”
Anonymously published in London in 1818, Frankenstein initially received unfavorable reviews, but by the publication of the first American edition in 1833, Frankenstein had garnered both popular and critical acclaim.
Now widely regarded as the first science fiction novel, a defining model of the gothic style and a horror masterpiece, Frankenstein was Mary’s first published work. We are pleased to offer the scarce 1833 first American edition of Frankenstein.