Frankenstein: New Edition of Mary Shelley’s Gothic Masterpiece

About this book

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

In Frankenstein, first published in 1818, Mary Shelley follows Victor Frankenstein and the being he brings into the world through his desire to create life. The experiment goes wrong. What he makes is so grotesque to him that he recoils at once, abandoning the creature and leaving it to fend for itself.

The monster’s story is shaped by that first rejection. Alone, it survives as best it can, and then seeks out its maker, pleading for a companion and for what it sees as a human right to happiness. Victor refuses, afraid of what might follow if he gives in. The refusal curdles into a vow: the creature will ruin any happiness in Victor’s life.

Frankenstein is both tragedy and cautionary tale, turning on ambition, responsibility, and the consequences of creation when the act is severed from care. It leaves its questions unsoftened, and close to the bone.