The Frankenstein Notebooks

Book excerpt: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is arguably the best known work of the English Romantic period. First published in 1996, this edition of The Frankenstein Notebooks contains not only facsimiles and transcriptions of all of surviving manuscripts related to the novel and a corrected, critical text of Frankenstein (or The Modern Prometheus) but also a full range of factual information, drawn from Shelley’s and William Godwin’s letters and journals, from newspaper ads of the day, and from other available scholarship about the conception, gestation, and birth of Mary Shelley’s monster. This two volume set contains a wealth of information vital to the creation and reception of Frankenstein. It will enable scholars, critics and students to see for themselves the exact extent of P. B. Shelley’s editorial contributions and trace the artistic and ideological development of the novel at various stages in its formation. It will also enable the reader to explore the text itself to test and evaluate their own theses. Part two contains the draft notebook B, which was written between December 1816 and April 1817, and the fair-copy notebooks which were compiled between April and May 1817. This set will be of keen interest to those studying Frankenstein, the Romantics and 19th century literature.