Frankenstein

Review'makes the original 1818 text easily available, and there are good reasons for welcoming it… Butler's introduction is a rich essay in historical contextualisation, emphasising the Shelleys' early links with materialist physiology and showing how the 1831 edition reflected the broad intellectual changes of the intervening years.' The English Association
'this edition is worth a browse' Daily Telegraph
'The excellent introduction discusses the circumstances of its writing in the wider context of social and scientific controversy.' Good Book Guide, January 1995
Product DescriptionShelley's enduringly popular and rich gothic tale confronts some of the most feared innovations of evolutionism and science--topics such as degeneracy, hereditary disease, and humankind's ability to act as creator of the modern world. This new edition, based on the harder and wittier 1818 version of the text, draws on new research and examines the novel in the context of the controversial radical sciences developing in the years following the Napoleonic Wars, and shows the relationship of Frankenstein's experiment to the contemporary debate between champions of materialistic science and proponents of received religion.