Most Popular Books by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Shelley''s suspenseful and intellectually rich gothic tale confronts some of the most important and enduring themes in all of literture—the power of human imagination, the potential hubris of science, the gulf between appearance and essence, the effects of human cruelty, the desire for revenge and the need for forgiveness, and much more. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826. The book tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. The novel was harshly reviewed at the time, and was virtually unknown until a scholarly revival beginning in the 1960s. It is notable in part for its semi-biographical portraits of Romantic figures in Shelley''s circle particularly Shelley''s late husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron

The novel presents man''s search and quest for the ultimate power and godhood. It is a narrative of man''s interference into nature and the consequent destruction. It also delves into human psychology that rejects everything ugly. Written in the times of Industrial Revolution, the work also comments on the conditions of society and people.

Mary Shelley''s classic on man''s blasphemous attempt to create life is accompanied by commentary on the author and the stylistic, thematic, and mythic aspects of the novel.

The definitive, annotated edition of Mary Shelley''s classic novel.

200 years after it was first published, Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein has stood the test of time as a gothic masterpiece--a classic work of humanity and horror that blurs the line between man and monster... The story of Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he created has held readers spellbound ever since it was published two centuries ago. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting horror; but on a more profound level, it offers searching illumination of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a monster brought to life in an alien world, ever more desperately attempting to escape the torture of his solitude. A novel of hallucinatory intensity, Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination. Original Complete Unabridged Illustrated with book-end doodles about reading

Desperate in his search of the secret of life, young Dr Victor Frankenstein attempts to construct and then bring to life a previously inanimate creature. He succeeds, yet immediately finds himself horrified and repulsed by the fruit of his long-lasting labors and, as a result, abandons the creature without a word. This action begins a series of tragic events in the life of the scientist, as the enraged monster begins his quest to fill every minute of Dr. Frankenstein’s life with terror, dread and misery. First published in 1818, this novel continues to captivate the audience today. Frankenstein is not merely a horror story, but, rather, a tale that would make its readers ponder on the pursuit of knowledge and explore what monstrosity truly means.

Originally published: London: Printed for G. and W.B. Whittaker, 1823. In 2 vols.

A monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator, in an annotated edition that offers insights into Shelley''s literary and social worlds.

The California edition of the Pennyroyal Press "Frankenstein" unites the dark side of Barry Moser''s art with the classic 1818 text of Mary Shelley''s tale of moral transfiguration. In a vivid sequence of woodcuts, the reader witnesses the birth of the "monster" as Moser shapes him from darkness and gives him a form simultaneously ghastly in its malice and transfixing in its suffering.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley about eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction. Frankenstein, a Swiss student at the university of Ingolstadt, is led by a peculiar enthusiasm to study the structure of the human frame, and to attempt to follow to its recondite sources the stream of animated being.'' In examining the causes of life, he informs us, antithetically, that he had first recourse to death. -- He became acquainted with anatomy; but that was not all; he traced through vaults and charnel houses the decay and corruption of the human body, and whilst engaged in this agreeable pursuit, examining and analyzing the minutiae of mortality, and the phenomena of the change from life to death and from death to life, a sudden light broke in upon him ...

Frankenstein was Mary Shelley''s immensely powerful contribution to the ghost stories which she, Percy Shelley, and Byron devised one wet summer in Switzerland. Its protagonist is a young student of natural philosophy, who learns the secret of imparting life to a creature constructed from relics of the dead, with horrific consequences. Frankenstein confronts some of the most feared innovations of evolutionism: topics such as degeneracy, hereditary disease, and mankind''s status as a species of animal. The text used here is from the 1818 edition, which is a mocking expose'' of leaders and achievers who leave desolation in their wake, showing humanity its choice - to live co-operatively or to die of selfishness. Drawing on new research, Marilyn Butler examines the novel in the context of the radical sciences, which were developing among much controversy, and shows how Frankenstein''s experiment relates to a contemporary debate between the champions of materialist science and of received religion.