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Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus
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Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus Hardcover - 2001

by Mary Shelley; Introduction by Jeffery Deaver


About this book

Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus is a Gothic novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818. The story revolves around Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who creates a monstrous creature and immediately regrets his actions, abandoning the creature to its own devices. The creature, seeking acceptance and revenge, terrorizes Victor and those he loves. Themes of ambition, ethics, humanity, and loneliness are explored through Shelley's vivid descriptions of the natural world and her characters' psychological torment. Frankenstein remains a classic of Gothic literature and a seminal work of science fiction.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin wrote the first draft of her groundbreaking novel in 1816, while on a trip to Lake Geneva with her soon-to-be husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and poet Lord Byron. They were stuck indoors during famously known as the Year Without a Summer.




From the publisher

Frankenstein ranks among the most enduring horror tales ever imagined. The groaning Monster, bolts erupting from his neck and stitches fastening his square brow, is famous worldwide. But the creature born in Mary Shelley's mind nearly two hundred years ago was far more complex: murderous and
raging, but also articulate, lonely, and gravely misunderstood by the world into which he was thrust. The story of Victor Frankenstein emerges in a series of letters penned by Walton, an English explorer icebound in the Arctic. While studying natural philosophy in Geneva, Frankenstein discovers how to give life to inanimate matter, and from dead flesh constructs a living being. His Monster
possesses superhuman speed and strength, and learns of human emotion by studying Goethe, Plutarch, and Milton's Paradise Lost. But as the creature's mind and thoughts develop, his loneliness and misery build, and he acts out in deadly violence. When the scientist refuses to create a companion for
him, the Monster lets loose his full wrath. Berserk, he murders Frankenstein's wife, then flees to the North Pole. Frankenstein follows, desperate to destroy his rampaging creation. Once there he meets Walton and confesses the horror that is drawing him deep into the Arctic wasteland. Jeffery Deaver pours a suspense master's insight into his introduction, exploring the author's drive to thrill and terrify, and digging at the actual birthplace of Frankenstein's monster: Mary Shelley's mind. The author of sixteen novels, Deaver has appeared on bestseller lists around the world.
His novel The Bone Collector was produced as a feature film by Universal Pictures starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, and his most recent novel, The Blue Nowhere, is being produced by Warner Brothers.

First Edition Identification

A small London publishing house, Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones, first printed Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus in a limited series of just 500 copies on January 1, 1818. By then, Mary was just 20 years old. The first edition was published anonymously in 1818, with a preface by Percy B. Shelley and a dedication to Mary’s father, philosopher William Godwin. Mary Shelley didn’t publicly claim her novel until years later, and her name appears in the second edition, published in 1823. First edition original pasteboards were in blueish gray.

First editions are very scarce and exceptionally rare on the market. In 2021 one of the first 500 copies of the novel was sold at auction for $1.17 million. It was the first Frankenstein first edition copy to be auctioned since 1985.


Details

  • Title Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus
  • Author Mary Shelley; Introduction by Jeffery Deaver
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Pages 224
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Oxford University Press, USA
  • Date 2001-11
  • ISBN 9780195149012 / 0195149017
  • Weight 0.51 lbs (0.23 kg)
  • Dimensions 6.51 x 4.37 x 0.64 in (16.54 x 11.10 x 1.63 cm)
  • Reading level 1040
  • Library of Congress subjects Science fiction, Horror fiction
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2001039092
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author


Jeffery Wilds Deaver is the author of many bestselling novels, including The Coffin Dancer, A Maiden's Grave, The Lesson of Her Death, and The Bone Collector. He lives in Reston, Virginia.
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Frankenstein (Oxford World's Classics Hardcovers)
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Frankenstein (Oxford World's Classics Hardcovers)

by Shelley, Mary

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Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus

Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus

by Shelley, Mary

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Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus

Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus

by Shelley, Mary

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  • Hardcover
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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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Frankenstein
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by Shelley, Mary

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Frankenstein (Oxford World's Classics)
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Frankenstein (Oxford World's Classics)

by Mary Shelley; Introduction-Jeffery Deaver

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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