The Mary Shelley Reader

About this book

Renewed interest in the life and works of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley has in recent years generated new biographical studies complete editions of her letters and short stories and fresh critical assessments of Frankenstein and her other fiction. Until now however there has been no anthology of Shelleys work. The Mary Shelley Reader is a unique new collection that fills this gap. In addition to the original and complete 1818 version of her masterpiece Frankenstein the book offers a new text of the novella Mathilda--an extraordinary tale of incest guilt and atonement that was not published until 1959 and has been out of print since then. Also included are seven short stories that range from gentle satire to fantastic tales of reanimation diabolical transformation and immortality. Eight essays and reviews are reprinted here for the first time since their original publication and eleven representative letters help bring to life a remarkable literary and historical figure--author daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. An illuminating introduction a chronology explanatory notes and a bibliography make The Mary Shelley Reader indispensable for readers of English Romantic literature.