• Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a gothic romance novel written by British author Mary Shelley.

• Fast Facts

  1. Author: Mary Shelley
  2. Genre: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction
  3. Publication Date: 1818
  4. Publisher: Pocket Books (2004 Enriched Classics edition)
  5. Pages: 352 (Pocket Books edition)
  6. ISBN 0743487583
  7. Originally published anonymously

• Plot Synopsis

  Frankenstein is a largely epistolary novel, using letters to chronicle the conflict between Victor Frankenstein and the animated, piecework corpse he brought to life. Much of the book is told by Frankenstein in flashback form. The end of the story is related by a ship captain who rescues him in the Arctic.

  In the story, Frankenstein quickly abandons his creation in horror and shame. Enraged by his creator's abandonment, yet yearning for his love, Frankenstein's monster sets out to murder the people Frankenstein most values. Frankenstein and the monster pursue one another across Europe and into the Arctic, where their fates are ultimately decided.

• Critical Reception

  The publishers of Shelly's husband Percy and friend Lord Byron rejected the novel. It was eventually published by Harding, Mavor & Jones, and attributed to Anonymous. Despite criticism like the Quarterly Review's "...it cannot mend, and will not even amuse its readers, unless their taste have been deplorably vitiated,"The Quarterly Review: Review of Frankenstein (January 1818) Frankenstein was a popular success. Mary Shelly saw a theatrical adaptation produced, and published a revised edition of the novel with wider distribution in 1831.

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Frankenstein Quotes | Mary Shelley | Percy Bysshe Shelley | Lord George Gordon Byron | John Polidori | Dracula | Hammer Films | Universal Studios | Edison | Mel Brooks | Young Frankenstein | Industrial Revolution | Victor Frankenstein | The Romantic Era | Gothic Novel | Horror | William Godwin | Mary Wollstonecraft

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