Books with author Lynd Ward Mary Shelley

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley (1797–1851) that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition published in Paris in 1821.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadAt the age of eighteen, Mary Shelley, while staying in the Swiss Alps with her lover Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, conceived the tale of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the monster he brings to life. The resulting book, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, is a dark parable warning against the risks of scientific and creative endeavor, the corrupting influence of technology and progress, and the dangers of knowledge without understanding. Frankenstein was an instant bestseller on publication in 1818 and has long been regarded as a masterpiece of suspense, a classic of nineteenth-century Romanticism and Gothic horror, and the prototype of the science fiction novel. Though it has spawned countless imitations and adaptations, it remains the most powerful story of its kind.

Mary Shelley wrote this novel to distract herself from her grief after the deaths of her one-year-old daughter Clara in Venice and her three-year-old son William in Rome. Narrating from her deathbed, Mathilda, a young woman barely in her twenties, writes her story as a way of explaining her actions to her friend, Woodville. Her narration follows her lonely upbringing and climaxes at a point when her unnamed father confesses his incestuous love for her. This is then followed by his suicide by drowning and her ultimate death; her relationship with the gifted young poet, Woodville, fails to reverse Matilda's emotional withdrawal or prevent her lonely death.

On her deathbed, Mathilda writes a letter to her only friend, revealing the dark secret of her past, a secret so shameful, she can only manage it now because her time is running out. Written between 1819 and 1820, author Mary Shelley unfortunately never saw this novella published. Though he enjoyed the writing, her father, William Godwin, refused to return the manuscript to her after she asked him to get it published in England, because he found the theme "disgusting and detestable". The world was, therefore, deprived of this beautifully written story about love and despair until 1959.

There is no greater novel in the monster genre than "Frankenstein" and no more well known monster than the one that is at the center of this novel. However, the monster of "Frankenstein" is more than the common lumbering moronic giant that is most often represented. "Frankenstein's" monster is in reality a thinking intelligent being who is tormented by world in which he does not belong. In this depiction Shelley draws upon the universal human themes of creation, the nature of existence, and the need for acceptance. For it is without this acceptance that the true monster, the violent nature of humanity, emerges.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JEANETTE WINTERSON AND A CULTURAL HISTORY OF FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTERWhat you create can destroy you. One freezing morning, a lone man wandering across the Arctic ice caps is rescued from starvation by a ship's captain. Victor Frankenstein's story is one of ambition, murder and revenge. As a young scientist he pushed moral boundaries in order to cross the final frontier and create life. But his creation is a monster stitched together from grave-robbed body parts who has no place in the world, and his life can only lead to tragedy.Written when she was only nineteen, Shelley's gothic tale is one of the greatest horror stories ever published.

Originally written as a response to a challenge from Lord Byron‚ Frankenstein still haunts our minds with images of the dead brought back to hideous life. Mary Shelley’s nineteenth-century masterpiece begins with a fateful rescue in the Arctic and slowly evolves into a gripping story of horror—a contest of wills between Victor Frankenstein and the monster he creates. Wandering through Europe‚ the confused creature searches for a father figure in the tortured scientist who stitched him together with body parts stolen from the grave. Themes of revenge‚ the philosophical limits of science‚ and forbidden knowledge are deeply explored in the greatest Gothic novel ever written. This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader’s notes to help the modern reader contend with Shelley’s complex vocabulary and references.