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{{about|the novel by Mary Shelley|the titular character|Victor Frankenstein|the monster|Frankenstein's monster|other uses}}


{{Use British English|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox book <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name              = Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
| image             = Christie's auction scan of Frankenstein 1818.jpg
| caption           = Title page of Vol. I, first edition, 1818
| author            = [[Mary Shelley]]
| country           = England
| language          = English
| genre             = [[Gothic novel]], [[horror fiction]], [[science fiction]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Stableford |first=Brian |editor-last=Seed |editor-first=David |encyclopedia=Anticipations: Essays on Early Science Fiction and its Precursors |title=Frankenstein and the Origins of Science Fiction |url=https://archive.org/details/anticipationsess00unse/page/47 |access-date=19 July 2018|year=1995 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0815626404 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/anticipationsess00unse/page/47 47–49] }}</ref>
| published         = {{Start date and age|1818|01|01|df=yes}}
| publisher         = Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones
| pages             = 280
| set_in            = England, [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]], Italy, France, Scotland, [[Old Swiss Confederacy]], [[Russian Empire]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]; late 18th century
| isbn              = <!-- N/A; ISBNs were not in use till 1966 -->
| dewey             = 823.7
| preceded_by       = [[History of a Six Weeks' Tour]]
| followed_by       = [[Valperga (novel)|Valperga]]
| congress          = PR5397 .F7
| wikisource        = Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
}}
'''''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''''' is an 1818 [[Gothic novel]]{{Efn|This is the primary genre. The work is also known for its elements of science fiction and horror, which were often amplified in adaptations.|group=lower-alpha}} written by English author [[Mary Shelley]]. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of [[Victor Frankenstein]], a young scientist who creates a [[sapience|sapient]] creature from different body parts in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18 and staying in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hindle |first=Maurice |date=1990 |title=Vital matters: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Romantic science |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41555493 |journal=Critical Survey |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=29–35 |jstor=41555493 |issn=0011-1570}}</ref> 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, which was published in Paris in 1821.

Shelley travelled through Europe in 1815, moving along the river [[Rhine]] in Germany, and stopping in [[Gernsheim]], {{convert|17|km}} away from [[Frankenstein Castle]], where, about a century earlier, [[Johann Konrad Dippel]], an [[alchemist]], had engaged in experiments.<ref>Hobbler, Dorthy and Thomas. ''The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein''. Back Bay Books; 20 August 2007.</ref><ref>Garrett, Martin. ''Mary Shelley''. Oxford University Press, 2002</ref><ref>Seymour, Miranda. ''Mary Shelley''. Atlanta, GA: Grove Press, 2002. pp. 110–11</ref> She then journeyed to the region of [[Geneva]], [[Restoration and Regeneration in Switzerland|Switzerland]], where much of the story takes place. [[Galvanism]] and [[occult]] ideas were topics of conversation for her companions, particularly for her lover and future husband [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]].

In 1816—at the suggestion of [[Lord Byron]]—Mary, Percy, [[John Polidori]] and Byron himself, each agreed to try writing a ghost story.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/news/mary-shelley-frankenstein-i-frankenstein-movie|title=Her 'Midnight Pillow': Mary Shelley and the Creation of Frankenstein|last= McGasko|first= Joe|website=Biography|access-date=2019-02-18|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190219072925/https://www.biography.com/news/mary-shelley-frankenstein-i-frankenstein-movie|archive-date=19 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> 
After thinking for days, Shelley was inspired to write ''Frankenstein'' after imagining a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made.<ref name="introduction 11-13">{{Cite web|first=Mary W. |last=Shelley |title=Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42324/42324-h/42324-h.htm|access-date=2022-12-29|via=Project Gutenberg |at=Paragraphs 11-13}}</ref> The novel was first published anonymously in 1818, and in 1831, a revised edition was published under Mary Shelley's name. This version included significant stylistic revisions, a new preface describing the story's conception, and a more explicitly moral tone.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus |url=https://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/baskin/item/4115|publisher=Duke University Libraries |access-date=26 October 2025}}</ref>

''Frankenstein'' is one of the best-known works of [[English literature]]. Infused with elements of the [[Gothic novel]] and the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] movement, it has had a considerable influence on literature and on popular culture, spawning a complete genre of horror stories, films, and plays. Since the publication of the novel, the name Frankenstein has often been used to [[Frankenstein's monster#Names|refer to the monster]].<ref>Bergen Evans, ''Comfortable Words'', New York: Random House, 1957</ref><ref>Bryan Garner, ''A Dictionary of Modern American Usage'', New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
</ref><ref>
''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of American English'', Merriam-Webster: 2002.
</ref>

==Plot summary==
{{Hatnote|This is a linear summary of the events of the novel, which opens from Robert Walton's perspective before switching to Victor's retelling, and then the creature's story.}}

[[Victor Frankenstein]], born in [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]] to an upper-class [[Genevese]] family, spends his youth obsessed with [[alchemy]]. As he grows older, he develops an interest in modern sciences such as chemistry and electricity. After his mother Caroline dies of [[scarlet fever]], Victor leaves home to attend the [[University of Ingolstadt]]. Through his studies, Victor discovers a new way to create life, assembling human body parts stolen from [[charnel house]]s and fresh graves, which he uses to create a large and grotesque humanoid creature. When [[Frankenstein's monster|the creature]] awakens, Victor is repelled by it and flees in terror, returning the next day to find the creature gone.

The newly conscious creature runs away, discovers fire, and learns to avoid humans, who find him frightening. He finds a hovel attached to a small house, which lets him observe a family while remaining unseen. As the family teaches their language to a foreigner, the creature also learns to speak and write. He also finds a collection of books, including ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', and learns to read. He reads some papers that had been in the clothes he had taken from [[Ingolstadt]], through which he learns the truth of his origin and the identity of his creator. He finally reveals himself to the family's [[Visual impairment|blind]] father while he is alone, who treats him with kindness. When the rest of the family return however, they are horrified by his appearance and chase him away. The creature then saves a young girl from drowning, only to be shot by her father, who had misunderstood, and thought the creature had attacked her. 

Embittered by humanity, the creature travels to [[Geneva]] to confront his creator; upon arrival, he encounters Victor's younger brother, William. Realizing that William belongs to the same family, the creature kills him, then frames the family's servant Justine for his death. Victor suspects his creature was responsible, but does not intervene while Justine is tried and executed. Later, while hiking on [[Mer de Glace]], Victor once more encounters the creature. The creature relays his story and asks Victor to create a female companion, which he believes will be his only chance at happiness. Victor consents to this.

{{quote box | width = 25em
|quote = "Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other, and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy [[Adam]]; but I am rather the [[fallen angel]], whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous."

— The Creature asks Victor Frankenstein to create a female companion.
}}

Victor and his friend Henry Clerval leave the European mainland for [[Great Britain|Britain]], where Victor establishes a laboratory in [[Orkney]]. While working on the female creature, Victor imagines his creations giving birth, and fearfully decides to destroy the incomplete female. The original creature issues a warning that he will meet Victor on his wedding night, and murders Henry in an act of revenge. 

Victor suffers a [[mental breakdown]], then returns home. Back in Geneva, Victor marries [[Elizabeth Lavenza]], a childhood friend born in Italy. Fulfilling his threat, the creature murders her on the wedding night. Days later, Victor's father Alphonse dies of grief. With no remaining family (besides his other brother Ernest), Victor vows revenge and pursues the creature, eventually following him to the Arctic.

Chasing the creature across Arctic ice, Victor nearly dies from exhaustion and [[hypothermia]], but is rescued by Captain Robert Walton, who is leading an expedition to the [[North Pole]]. Victor recounts his story to Walton and encourages the crew to continue their expedition; instead, they decide to abandon their journey and turn back. Victor vows that he will go on chasing the creature, but in his weakened state, he dies aboard the ship. As the ship leaves the Arctic, the creature comes on board. He mourns Victor's death, tells Walton he plans to burn himself on a pyre, and departs.

==Author's background==
[[File:Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Rothwell.tif|left|thumb|upright|''Mary Shelley'' by [[Richard Rothwell (painter)|Richard Rothwell]] (1840–41)]]

Mary Shelley's mother, [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], died from infection eleven days after giving birth to her. Shelley grew close to her father, [[William Godwin]]. Godwin hired a nurse, who briefly cared for her and her half-sister, before marrying his second wife, [[Mary Jane Clairmont]], who did not like the close bond between Shelley and her father. The resulting friction caused Godwin to favour his other children.

Shelley's father was a famous author of the time, and her education was of great importance to him, although it was not formal. Shelley grew up surrounded by her father's friends, writers, and persons of political importance, who often gathered at the family home. This inspired her authorship at an early age. Mary, at the age of sixteen, met Percy Bysshe Shelley (who later became her husband) while he was visiting her father. Godwin disapproved of the relationship between his daughter and an older, married man, so they fled to France along with her stepsister, [[Claire Clairmont]]. On 22 February 1815, Shelley gave birth prematurely to her first child, Clara, who died two weeks later.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-strange-and-twisted-life-of-frankenstein|title=The Strange and Twisted Life of "Frankenstein"|last=Lepore|first=Jill|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2018-02-05|access-date=2019-03-04|issn=0028-792X|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222230948/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-strange-and-twisted-life-of-frankenstein|archive-date=22 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the [[Year Without a Summer|summer of 1816]], Mary, Percy, and Claire took a trip to visit Claire's lover, [[Lord Byron]], in [[Geneva]]. Poor weather conditions, more akin to winter, forced Byron and the visitors to stay indoors. Byron suggested that he, Mary, Percy, and Byron's physician, [[John Polidori]], each try writing a ghost story.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is published |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/frankenstein-published |website=History.com |date=13 November 2009 |access-date=11 February 2021}}</ref> Mary was 20 years old when her novel ''Frankenstein'' was published.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/frankenstein/exhibition1.html|title=Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature: The Birth of Frankenstein|website=nlm.nih.gov|access-date=2018-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129054357/https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/frankenstein/exhibition1.html|archive-date=29 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Badalamenti|first=Anthony|date=Fall 2006|title=Why did Mary Shelley Write Frankenstein|jstor=27512949|journal=Journal of Religion and Health|volume=45|issue=3|pages=419–39|doi=10.1007/s10943-006-9030-0|s2cid=37615140 | issn = 0022-4197 }}</ref>

==Literary influences==
Shelley's work was heavily influenced by that of her parents. Her father was famous for his 1793 book ''[[Enquiry Concerning Political Justice]]'' and her mother famous for the 1792 essay ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]''. Her father's novels also influenced her writing of ''Frankenstein''. These novels included ''[[Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams]]'' (1794), ''St. Leon'', and ''Fleetwood''. All of these books were set in Switzerland, similar to the setting in ''Frankenstein''. Some major themes of social affections and the renewal of life that appear in Shelley's novel stem from these works she had in her possession. Other literary influences that appear in ''Frankenstein'' are {{lang|fr|[[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]] et Galatée}} by [[Madame de Genlis]], and [[Ovid]], with the use of individuals identifying the problems with society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/pollin.html|title=Pollin, "Philosophical and Literary Sources"|website=knarf.english.upenn.edu|access-date=2019-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405185454/http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/pollin.html|archive-date=5 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Ovid also inspires the use of [[Prometheus]] in the book's subtitle.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pollin|first=Burton|date=Spring 1965|title=Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein|journal=Comparative Literature|volume=17|issue=2|pages=97–108|doi=10.2307/1769997|jstor=1769997}}</ref>

The influence of [[John Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'' are evident in the novel. In ''The Frankenstein of the French Revolution'', author Julia Douthwaite posits that Shelley probably acquired some ideas for Frankenstein's character from [[Humphry Davy]]'s book ''Elements of Chemical Philosophy'', in which he had written that,
<blockquote>science has ... bestowed upon man powers which may be called creative; which have enabled him to change and modify the beings around him ... </blockquote>

References to the [[French Revolution]] run through the novel; a possible source is François-Félix Nogaret's {{lang|fr|[[Le Miroir des événemens actuels, ou la Belle au plus offrant]]}} (1790), a political parable about scientific progress featuring an inventor named "Wak-wik-vauk-an-son-frankésteïn",<ref>[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k854529k/f58.item.r=Le%20Miroir%20des%20%C3%A9v%C3%A9nemens%20actuels.zoom Original text] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105180801/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k854529k/f58.item.r=Le%20Miroir%20des%20%C3%A9v%C3%A9nemens%20actuels.zoom |date=2018-01-05 }} on [[Gallica]].</ref> then abridged as {{langr|fr|Frankésteïn}}, who creates a life-sized automaton.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo13265096.html|title=The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France|publisher=University of Chicago Press |chapter=The Frankenstein of the French Revolution |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116230136/http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo13265096.html |archive-date=16 November 2012 |url-status=live |first=Julia V. |last=Douthwaite}}</ref> However there is no evidence Shelley had read it.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/9512220|title=The Frankenstein of the French Revolution: Nogaret's automaton tale of 1790|first1=Julia V. |last1=Douthwaite |first2=Daniel |last2=Richter |journal=European Romantic Review|year=2009|volume=20|issue=3|pages=381–411|doi=10.1080/10509580902986369|s2cid=143492105|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Both Frankenstein and the monster quote passages from [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Percy Shelley]]'s 1816 poem, "[[Mutability (poem)|Mutability]]", and its theme of the role of the subconscious is discussed in prose. Percy Shelley's name never appears as the author of the poem, although the novel credits other quoted poets by name. Coleridge's poem ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' (1798) is associated with the theme of guilt and [[William Wordsworth]]'s "[[Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey|Tintern Abbey]]" (1798) with that of innocence.

Many writers and historians have attempted to associate several then-popular natural philosophers (now called physical scientists) with Shelley's work because of several notable similarities. Two of the most noted natural philosophers among Shelley's contemporaries were Italian [[Giovanni Aldini]], who made many public attempts at human reanimation through bio-electric [[Galvanism]] in London,<ref name=":7">{{cite journal |last1=Ruston |first1=Sharon |title=The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein'' |journal=[[The Public Domain Review]] |date=25 November 2015 |url=http://publicdomainreview.org/2015/11/25/the-science-of-life-and-death-in-mary-shelleys-frankenstein/ |access-date=25 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126072751/http://publicdomainreview.org/2015/11/25/the-science-of-life-and-death-in-mary-shelleys-frankenstein/ |archive-date=26 November 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Johann Konrad Dippel]], who was supposed to have developed chemical means to extend the life span of humans. While Shelley was aware of both of these men and their activities, she makes no mention of or reference to them or their experiments in any of her published or released notes.

Ideas about life and death discussed by Percy and [[Lord Byron|Byron]] were of great interest to scientists of the time. They drew on the theories of [[Erasmus Darwin]] and the experiments of [[Luigi Galvani]], as well as the work of [[James Lind (naturalist)|James Lind]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lind, James (1736–1812) on JSTOR|url=https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000033179|access-date=2021-05-08|website=plants.jstor.org}}</ref> Mary joined these conversations, and the ideas of Darwin, Galvani, and perhaps Lind are reflected in her novel.

Shelley's personal experiences also influenced the themes within ''Frankenstein''. The themes of loss, guilt, and the consequences of defying nature present in the novel all developed from Mary Shelley's own life. The loss of her mother, the relationship with her father, and the death of her first child are thought to have inspired the monster and his separation from parental guidance. In a 1965 issue of ''The Journal of Religion and Health'' a psychologist proposed that the theme of guilt stemmed from her not feeling good enough for Percy because of the loss of their child.<ref name=":0" />

==Composition==
[[Image:FrankensteinDraft.jpg|right|thumb|Draft of ''Frankenstein'' ("It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld my man completed&nbsp;...")]]
During the rainy summer of 1816, the "[[Year Without a Summer]]", the world was locked in a long, cold [[volcanic winter]] caused by the eruption of [[Mount Tambora]] in 1815.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Marshall|first=Alan|date=January 2020|title=Did a Volcanic Eruption in Indonesia Really Lead to the Creation of Frankenstein?|url=https://theconversation.com/did-a-volcanic-eruption-in-indonesia-really-lead-to-the-creation-of-frankenstein-130212|website=The Conversation}}</ref>{{sfn|Sunstein|1989|p=118}} Mary Shelley, aged 18, and her lover (and future husband), [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], visited [[Lord Byron]] at the [[Villa Diodati]] by [[Lake Geneva]], in the [[Swiss Alps]]. The weather was too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn.

Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company amused themselves by reading German ghost stories translated into French from the book {{lang|fr|[[Fantasmagoriana]]}}.<ref>Dr. [[John William Polidori|John Polidori]], "The Vampyre" 1819, The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register; London: H. Colburn, 1814–1820. Vol. 1, No. 63.</ref> Byron proposed that they "each write a ghost story."<ref>paragraph 7, Introduction, Frankenstein 1831 edition</ref> Unable to think of a story, Mary Shelley became anxious. She recalled being asked "Have you thought of a story?" each morning, and every time being "forced to reply with a mortifying negative."<ref>paragraph 8, Introduction, Frankenstein 1831 edition</ref> During one evening in the middle of summer, the discussions turned to the nature of the principle of life. "Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated," Mary noted, "[[galvanism]] had given token of such things".<ref>paragraph 10, Introduction, Frankenstein 1831 edition</ref> It was after midnight before they retired and, unable to sleep, she became possessed by her imagination as she beheld the "grim terrors" of her "waking dream".<ref name="introduction 11-13"/>

{{Blockquote|I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.<ref>Quoted in Spark, 157, from Mary Shelley's introduction to the 1831 edition of ''Frankenstein''.</ref>}}

In September 2011, astronomer Donald Olson, after a visit to the Lake Geneva villa in the previous year and inspecting data about the motion of the moon and stars, concluded that her "waking dream" took place between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on 16 June 1816, several days after the initial idea by Lord Byron that they each write a ghost story.<ref name="astro">{{Cite web|date=2011-09-25|first=Tim|last=Radford|title=Frankenstein's hour of creation identified by astronomers|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/26/frankenstein-hour-creation-identified-astronomers|access-date=2022-12-29|website=The Guardian|location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302174254/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/26/frankenstein-hour-creation-identified-astronomers |archive-date=2 March 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Bath (2023-06-18) 080.jpg|thumb|upright|''Mary Shelley's House of Frankenstein'', a museum dedicated to the life of Shelley and her novel, at 37 Gay Street, [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], the city where she wrote the book.]]
Mary Shelley began writing what she assumed would be a short story, but with Percy Shelley's encouragement, she expanded the tale into a fully-fledged novel.{{sfnm|Bennett|1998|1pp=30–31|Sunstein|1989|2p=124}} She later described that summer in Switzerland as the moment "when I first stepped out from childhood into life."{{sfn|Sunstein|1989|p=117}} Shelley wrote the first four chapters in the weeks following the suicide of her half-sister Fanny.<ref>Hay, 103.</ref> This was one of many personal tragedies that impacted Shelley's work. Shelley's first child died in infancy, and when she began composing ''Frankenstein'' in 1816, she was probably nursing her second child, who was also dead by the time of ''Frankenstein''{{'}}s publication.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Lepore|first=Jill|date=5 February 2018|title=The Strange and Twisted Life of 'Frankenstein'|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-strange-and-twisted-life-of-frankenstein|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=22 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222230948/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-strange-and-twisted-life-of-frankenstein|archive-date=22 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> 

Shelley wrote much of the book while residing in a lodging house in the centre of [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], England in 1816.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kennedy|first=Maev|title='A 200-year-old secret': plaque to mark Bath's hidden role in Frankenstein|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/26/a-200-year-old-secret-plaque-to-mark-baths-hidden-role-in-frankenstein|work=The Guardian|location=London|date=26 February 2018|access-date=13 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181114060614/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/26/a-200-year-old-secret-plaque-to-mark-baths-hidden-role-in-frankenstein|archive-date=14 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> According to ''[[The Guardian]]'', "By all accounts, Shelley came to Bath to hide. Yet she found deep wells of inspiration while living in the shadow of the [[Bath Abbey|city's gothic abbey]], particularly among Bath's medical community. Significantly, she was a contemporary of Dr Charles Wilkinson, a pioneer of medical electricity, and attended lectures at his laboratory around the corner from her lodgings when she was writing about Victor Frankenstein breaking taboos by using galvanism to shock life into a creature stitched together from dead body parts."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Parkes |first1=Lorna |title=House of horror: Bath opens the world's first museum dedicated to Mary Shelley |url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/jul/23/house-of-horror-bath-opens-the-worlds-first-museum-dedicated-to-mary-shelley |access-date=15 November 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=23 July 2021}}</ref>

Byron managed to write just a fragment based on the [[vampire]] legends he heard while travelling the [[Balkans]], and from this [[John Polidori]] created ''[[The Vampyre]]'' (1819), the progenitor of the romantic vampire literary genre. Thus two seminal horror tales originated from the conclave.<ref name="BBC/b04nvq7q">{{cite web |title=Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nvq7q |website=[[BBC Two]] |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=28 December 2024}}</ref><ref name="era.org.uk/frankenstein-vampyre">{{cite web |title=Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night - BBC Literary Archive |url=https://era.org.uk/lit-resource/frankenstein-and-the-vampyre-a-dark-and-stormy-night/ |website=Educational Recording Agency Limited |access-date=28 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="films/96431">{{cite web |title=Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night |url=https://www.films.com/id/96431 |website=Films Media Group |access-date=29 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

The group talked about [[The Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and [[Counter-Enlightenment]] ideas as well. Mary Shelley believed the Enlightenment idea that society could progress and grow if political leaders used their powers responsibly; however, she also believed the Romantic idea that misused power could destroy society.{{sfn|Bennett|1998|pp=36-42}}

Shelley's manuscripts for the first three-volume edition in 1818 (written 1816–1817), as well as the [[fair copy]] for her publisher, are now housed in the [[Bodleian Library]] in [[Oxford]]. The Bodleian acquired the papers in 2004, and they belong now to the [[Baron Abinger|Abinger]] Collection.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |url=http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/abinger/abinger.html |title=OX.ac.uk |publisher=Bodley.ox.ac.uk |date=15 December 2009 |access-date=28 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205102149/http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/abinger/abinger.html |archive-date=5 December 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/Frankenstein-notebook-reader#page/1/mode/2up|title=Shelley's Ghost – Reshaping the image of a literary family|website=shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk|access-date=2019-09-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810021645/http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/Frankenstein-notebook-reader#page/1/mode/2up|archive-date=10 August 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2008, the Bodleian published a new edition of ''Frankenstein'', edited by Charles E. Robinson, that contains comparisons of Mary Shelley's original text with Percy Shelley's additions and interventions alongside.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mary Shelley, with Percy Shelley|editor=Charles E. Robinson|year=2008|title=The Original Frankenstein|url=http://www.bodleianshop.co.uk/the-original-frankenstein.html|location=Oxford|publisher=Bodleian Library|isbn=978-1-851-24396-9|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925134955/http://www.bodleianshop.co.uk/the-original-frankenstein.html|archive-date=25 September 2015}}</ref>

==Frankenstein and the Monster==

===The Creature===
{{Main|Frankenstein's monster}}
[[File:Punch Anti-Irish propaganda (1882) Irish Frankenstein (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|An English editorial cartoonist conceives the Irish [[Fenian]] movement as akin to Frankenstein's creature, in the wake of the [[Phoenix Park murders]] in an 1882 issue of ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frankenstein:Celluloid Monster|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/frankenstein/escaping.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515180541/https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/escaping.html |archive-date=15 May 2016 |url-status=live |website=National Library of Medicine of the National Institute of Health}}</ref>]]

Although the Creature was described in later works as a composite of whole body parts grafted together from cadavers and [[reanimation (science fiction)|reanimated]] by the use of electricity, this description is not consistent with Shelley's work; both the use of electricity and the cobbled-together image of Frankenstein's monster were more the result of [[James Whale]]'s popular 1931 [[Frankenstein (1931 film)|film adaptation of the story]] and other early motion-picture works based on the creature. The impact of James Whale's adaptation is noteworthy enough that in a 2025 publication of ''Frankenstein'', the introduction by [[Jeanette Winterson]] erroneously references the use of a massive jolt of electricity to imbue life in the creature.<ref>Winterson, Jeanette. "Introduction to the Vintage Classics Edition (2025)." ''Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus'' by Mary Shelley, Vintage Classics, 2025, pp. viii-xi.</ref> In Shelley's original work, Victor Frankenstein discovers a previously unknown but elemental principle of life, and that insight allows him to develop a method to imbue vitality into inanimate matter, though the exact nature of the process is left ambiguous. After a great deal of hesitation in exercising this power, Frankenstein spends two years painstakingly constructing the Creature's body (one anatomical feature at a time, from raw materials supplied by "the dissecting room and the slaughter-house"), which he then brings to life using his unspecified process. 
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Frankenstein does not give him a name. Instead, Frankenstein's creation is referred to by words such as "wretch", "monster", "creature", "demon", "devil", "fiend", and "it". When Frankenstein converses with the creature, he addresses him as "vile insect", "abhorred monster", "fiend", "wretched devil", and "abhorred devil".

In the novel, the creature is compared to [[Adam]],<ref name=":4">{{cite web |url=http://www.ala.org/ala/ppo/currentprograms/frankenstein/exhibittext.pdf |title=Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature / Exhibit Text |publisher=[[National Library of Medicine]] and ALA Public Programs Office |url-status=dead |access-date=31 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061204162542/http://www.ala.org/ala/ppo/currentprograms/frankenstein/exhibittext.pdf |archive-date=4 December 2006 }} from the travelling exhibition [http://www.ala.org/ala/ppo/currentprograms/frankenstein/frankensteinpenetrating.cfm Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109215920/http://www.ala.org/ala/ppo/currentprograms/frankenstein/frankensteinpenetrating.cfm |date=9 November 2007 }}</ref> the [[List of first men or women in mythology and religion|first man]] in the [[Garden of Eden]]. The monster also compares himself with the [[fallen angel]]. Speaking to Frankenstein, the monster says "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel". That angel would be [[Lucifer]] (meaning "light-bringer") in [[John Milton|Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', which the monster has read. Adam is also referred to in the epigraph of the 1818 edition:<ref name="1818 edition">{{cite book |last1=Shelley |first1=Mary |title=Frankenstein |date=1818 |edition=1 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41445/41445-h/41445-h.htm}}</ref>{{blockquote|
:Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
:To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee
:From darkness to promote me?<ref>[[John Milton]], ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' (X. 743–45)</ref>}}

Some have posited the creature as a composite of [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Percy Shelley]] and [[Thomas Paine]]. If the creature's hatred for Victor and his desire to raise a child mirror Percy's filial rebelliousness and his longing to adopt children, his desire to do good and his persecution can be said to echo Paine's utopian visions and fate in England.<ref>Chiu, Frances A. "Reform, Revolution, and the relevance of Frankenstein in 2020" in ''Frankenstein Reanimated: Conversations with Artists in Dystopian Times'', ed. by Marc Garrett and Yiannis Colakides. London: Torque, 2022, 33–44.</ref>

The Creature has often been mistakenly called Frankenstein. In 1908, one author said "It is strange to note how well-nigh universally the term 'Frankenstein' is misused, even by intelligent people, as describing some hideous monster."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Rossiter|url=http://archive.org/details/authorsdigestwo10johngoog|title=Author's digest : the world's great stories in brief. Vol. 16, Robert Louis Stevenson to Albion Winegar Tourgée|date=1908|publisher=&#91;New York&#93; : Issued under the auspices of the Author's Press|others=unknown library}}</ref> [[Edith Wharton]]'s ''[[The Reef (novel)|The Reef]]'' (1916) describes an unruly child as an "infant Frankenstein".<ref>''[[The Reef (novel)|The Reef]]'', p. 96.</ref> [[David Lindsay (novelist)|David Lindsay]]'s "The Bridal Ornament", published in ''The Rover'', 12 June 1844, mentioned "the maker of poor Frankenstein." After the release of Whale's cinematic ''Frankenstein'', the public at large began speaking of the Creature itself as "Frankenstein". This misnomer continued with the successful sequel ''[[Bride of Frankenstein]]'' (1935), as well as in film titles such as ''[[Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein]]''.

[[File:Frontispiece to Frankenstein 1831.jpg|thumb|upright|Illustration by [[Theodor von Holst]] from the [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]] of the 1831 edition<ref>This illustration is reprinted in the frontispiece to the [https://www.amazon.com/dp/098092104X 2008 edition of ''Frankenstein''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107023530/http://www.amazon.com/dp/098092104X |date=7 November 2015 }}</ref>]]

===Origin of Victor Frankenstein's name===
Mary Shelley maintained that she derived the name ''Frankenstein'' from a dream-vision. This claim has since been disputed and debated by scholars that have suggested alternative sources for Shelley's inspiration.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Gray|first=Paul|date=1979-07-23|title=Books: The Man-Made Monster|magazine=Time|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947086-3,00.html|access-date=2020-09-21|issn=0040-781X}}</ref> The German name {{lang|de|Frankenstein}} means "stone of the [[Franks]]", and is associated with various places in Germany, including [[Frankenstein Castle]] ({{langr|de|Burg Frankenstein}}) in Darmstadt, Hesse, and [[Frankenstein Castle, Palatinate|Frankenstein Castle]] in Frankenstein, a village in the Palatinate.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Real-Life Places That Inspired Frankenstein |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/geography-of-frankenstein-180956964/|access-date=13 November 2025 |work=Smithsonian}}</ref> There is also a castle called Frankenstein in [[Bad Salzungen]], Thuringia, and a municipality called [[Frankenstein, Saxony|Frankenstein]] in Saxony. The town of [[Ząbkowice Śląskie|Frankenstein]] in [[Silesia]] (now {{langr|pl|Ząbkowice}}, Poland) was the site of a [[Frankenstein gravediggers scandal|scandal involving gravediggers]] in 1606, and this has been suggested as an inspiration to the author.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://historiamniejznanaizapomniana.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/afera-grabarzy-z-frankenstein/|title=Afera grabarzy z Frankenstein|first=Historia|last=zapomniana|date=24 January 2016|access-date=15 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203135121/https://historiamniejznanaizapomniana.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/afera-grabarzy-z-frankenstein/|archive-date=3 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Finally, the name is borne by the aristocratic [[House of Franckenstein]] from Franconia.

[[Radu Florescu]] argued that Mary and Percy Shelley visited Frankenstein Castle near Darmstadt in 1814, where alchemist [[Johann Konrad Dippel]] had experimented with human bodies, and reasoned that Mary suppressed mention of her visit to maintain her public claim of originality.<ref>{{Harvnb|Florescu|1996|pp=48–92}}.</ref> A literary essay by A.J. Day supports Florescu's position that Mary Shelley knew of and visited Frankenstein Castle before writing her debut novel.<ref name="Day2008">{{cite book|last=Day|first=A.J.|title=Fantasmagoriana (Tales of the Dead)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=szyuBymktB4C&pg=PA150|year=2005|publisher=Fantasmagoriana Press|isbn=978-1-4116-5291-0|pages=149–51}}</ref> Day includes details of an alleged description of the Frankenstein castle in Mary Shelley's "lost journals". However, according to Jörg Heléne, Day's and Florescu's claims cannot be verified.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://darmundestat.wordpress.com/sonstiges/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-castle-frankenstein-and-the-alchemist-johann-conrad-dippel |title=Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Castle Frankenstein and the alchemist Johann Conrad Dippel |last=Heléne |first=Jörg |date=12 September 2016 |website=Darmstadt |access-date=2017-06-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007001226/https://darmundestat.wordpress.com/sonstiges/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-castle-frankenstein-and-the-alchemist-johann-conrad-dippel/ |archive-date=7 October 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

A possible interpretation of the name "Victor" is derived from ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' by [[John Milton]], a great influence on Shelley (a quotation from ''Paradise Lost'' is on the opening page of ''Frankenstein'' and Shelley writes that the monster reads it in the novel).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Articles/wade.html |title=Wade, Phillip. "Shelley and the Miltonic Element in Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''." ''Milton and the Romantics'', 2 (December, 1976), 23–25. |access-date=5 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414014829/http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Articles/wade.html |archive-date=14 April 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Jones|1952|pp=496–97}}.</ref> Milton frequently refers to God as "the victor" in ''Paradise Lost'', and Victor's creation of life in the novel is compared to God's creation of life in ''Paradise Lost''. In addition, Shelley's portrayal of the monster owes much to the character of [[Satan]] in ''Paradise Lost''; and, the monster says in the story, after reading the epic poem, that he empathizes with Satan's role.

Parallels between Victor Frankenstein and Mary's husband, Percy Shelley, have also been drawn. Percy Shelley was the first-born son of [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] [[Timothy Shelley]], a country squire with strong political connections, and grandson of Sir [[Bysshe Shelley]], 1st Baronet of [[Castle Goring]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shelley |first1=Percy |title=The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Text Carefully Revised by William Michael Rossetti · Volume 1|date=1885 |publisher=Harvard University |page=3}}</ref> Similarly, Victor's family is one of the most distinguished of that republic and his ancestors were counsellors and [[syndic]]s. Percy's sister and Victor's adopted sister were both named Elizabeth. There are many other similarities, from Percy's usage of "Victor" as a pen name for ''[[Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire]]'', a collection of poetry he wrote with Elizabeth,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last =Sandy | first =Mark | title =Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire | encyclopedia =[[The Literary Encyclopedia]] | publisher =The Literary Dictionary Company | date =20 September 2002 | url =http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3010 | access-date =2 January 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20061108135507/http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3010 | archive-date =8 November 2006 | url-status =live }}</ref> to Percy's days at Eton, where he had "experimented with electricity and magnetism as well as with gunpowder and numerous chemical reactions," and the way in which Percy's rooms at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] were filled with scientific equipment.<ref>{{cite web | title =Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) | publisher =Department of English, [[Dickinson College]] | work =Romantic Natural History | url =http://www.dickinson.edu/~nicholsa/Romnat/pbshelley.htm | access-date =2 January 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20060816015001/http://www.dickinson.edu/~nicholsa/Romnat/pbshelley.htm | archive-date =16 August 2006 | url-status =live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Goulding|first=Christopher|date=2002|title=The real Doctor Frankenstein?|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume=95|issue=5|pages=257–259|doi=10.1177/014107680209500514|issn=0141-0768|pmc=1279684|pmid=11983772}}</ref>

===Modern Prometheus===
''The Modern Prometheus'' is the novel's subtitle (though modern editions now drop it, only mentioning it in introduction).<ref>For example, the Longman study edition published in India in 2007 by Pearson Education</ref> [[Prometheus]], in versions of Greek mythology, was the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]] who created humans in the image of the gods so that they could have a spirit breathed into them at the behest of [[Zeus]].{{efn|In the best-known versions of the Prometheus story, by Hesiod and Aeschylus, Prometheus merely brings fire to humankind, but in other versions, such as several of Aesop's fables (See in particular Fable 516), Sappho (Fragment 207), and Ovid's Metamorphoses, Prometheus is the actual creator of humanity.}} Prometheus then taught humans to hunt, but after he tricked Zeus into accepting "poor-quality offerings" from humans, Zeus kept fire from humankind. Prometheus took back the fire from Zeus to give to humanity. When Zeus discovered this, he sentenced Prometheus to be eternally punished by fixing him to a rock of [[Caucasus]], where each day an eagle pecked out his liver, only for the liver to regrow the next day because of his immortality as a god.

As a [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagorean]], or believer in ''[[An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty]]'' by [[Joseph Ritson]],<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NXEytZwWziEC&q=mary+shelley+vegetarian&pg=PA196|title=The Cambridge Companion to Shelley|last=Morton|first=Timothy|date=2006-09-21|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781139827072}}</ref> Mary Shelley saw Prometheus not as a hero but rather as something of a devil, and blamed him for bringing fire to humanity and thereby seducing the human race to the vice of eating meat.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wolf |first1=Leonard |authorlink=Leonard Wolf |title=The Essential Frankenstein: The Definitive, Annotated Edition of Mary Shelley's Classic Novel |date=1993 |publisher=Plume |location=New York |page=20}}</ref> Percy wrote several essays on what became known as vegetarianism including ''[[A Vindication of Natural Diet]]''.<ref name=":5" />

Byron was particularly attached to the play ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' by [[Aeschylus]], and Percy Shelley soon wrote his own ''[[Prometheus Unbound (Shelley)|Prometheus Unbound]]'' (1820). The term "Modern Prometheus" was derived from [[Immanuel Kant]] who described [[Benjamin Franklin]] as the "Prometheus of modern times" in reference to his experiments with electricity.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin in London|url=http://royalsociety.org/exhibitions/2006/benjamin-franklin/|website=The Royal Society |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512063335/http://royalsociety.org/exhibitions/2006/benjamin-franklin/ |archive-date= 12 May 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=8 August 2007}}</ref>

==Publication==
Shelley completed her writing in April/May 1817, and ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' was published on 1 January 1818<ref name="Robinson1996">{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Charles|title=The Frankenstein Notebooks: A Facsimile Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9q6tjgEACAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Garland Publishing, Inc.|volume=1|page=xxv|quote="She began that novel as Mary Godwin in June 1816 when she was eighteen years old, she finished it as Mary Shelley in April/May 1817 when she was nineteen . . . and she published it anonymously on 1 January 1818 when she was twenty."|access-date=15 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316132025/https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Frankenstein_Notebooks.html?id=9q6tjgEACAAJ|archive-date=16 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> by the small London publishing house Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones.{{sfn|Bennett|1998}}<ref>D. L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf, "A Note on the Text", Frankenstein, 2nd ed., Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1999.</ref> It was issued anonymously, with a preface written for Mary by Percy Bysshe Shelley and with a dedication to philosopher [[William Godwin]], her father. It was published in an edition of just 500 copies in three volumes, the standard "[[Three-volume novel|triple-decker]]" format for 19th-century first editions.

[[File:Editions of Frankenstein.jpg|thumb|A variety of different editions]]

A French translation ({{lang|fr|Frankenstein: ou le Prométhée Moderne}}, translated by Jules Saladin) appeared as early as 1821. The second English edition of ''Frankenstein'' was published on 11 August 1823 in two volumes (by G. and W. B. Whittaker) following the success of the stage play ''[[Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein]]'' by [[Richard Brinsley Peake]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qykBJvG0iJQC&pg=PA3|first= Mary |last=Wollstonecraft Shelley|author-link=Mary Shelley|title= Frankenstein|publisher= Bedford Publishing |year=2000|page= 3|isbn= 978-0312227623 }}</ref> This edition credited Mary Shelley as the book's author on its title page.<ref name="Smith"/>

On 31 October 1831, the first "popular" edition in one volume appeared, published by [[Henry Colburn]] & [[Richard Bentley (publisher)|Richard Bentley]].<ref>See forward to ''Barnes and Noble'' classic edition.{{full citation needed|date=March 2024}}</ref> This edition was heavily revised by Mary Shelley, partially to make the story less radical. It included a lengthy new introduction by the author, presenting a somewhat embellished version of the genesis of the story. This edition is the one most widely published and read now, although a few editions follow the 1818 text.<ref>The edition published by ''Forgotten Books'' is the original text, as is the "Ignatius Critical Edition". ''Vintage Books'' has an edition presenting both versions.</ref> Some scholars such as [[Anne K. Mellor]] prefer the original version, arguing that it preserves the spirit of Mary Shelley's vision.<ref>{{cite book|first=Anne K. |last=Mellor |chapter=Choosing a Text of ''Frankenstein'' to Teach |title=Approaches to Teaching Shelley's ''Frankenstein'' |editor-last=Behrendt |editor-first=Stephen C. |publisher=Modern Language Association of America |date=1990 |location=New York |isbn=0-87352-539-6 |pages=31–37}} [Reprinted in the [[Norton Critical Edition]].]</ref>

== Reception ==
Contemporary critical reviews were varied. [[Walter Scott]], writing in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine|Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine]]'', praised the novel as an "extraordinary tale, in which the author seems to us to disclose uncommon powers of poetic imagination," although he was less convinced about the way in which the monster gains knowledge about the world and language.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Scott|first=Walter|date=March 1818|title=Remarks on Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus; A Novel|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Blackwood%27s_Magazine/Volume_2/Issue_12/Remarks_on_Frankenstein|journal=Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine|pages=613–620|access-date=9 May 2025}}</ref> ''[[La Belle Assemblée]]'' described the novel as "very bold fiction"<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=1818-02-01|title=Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. 3 vols. 12mo. Lackington and Co.|url=http://romantic-circles.org/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/barev.html|magazine=La Belle Assemblée |series=New Series|pages=139–142|access-date=14 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114224740/http://romantic-circles.org/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/barev.html|archive-date=14 January 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> and the ''[[The Scots Magazine|Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany]]'' hoped to see "more productions ... from this author".<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=March 1818|title=Review – Frankenstein|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092547710&view=1up&seq=259|magazine=The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany |series=New Series |pages=249–253}}</ref> On the other hand, [[John Wilson Croker]], writing anonymously in the ''[[Quarterly Review]]'', although conceding that "the author has powers, both of conception and language," described the book as "a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity."<ref name=":6">{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus''|journal=The Quarterly Review|date=January 1818|volume=18|pages=379–85|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092624956;view=1up;seq=389|access-date=18 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106171936/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092624956;view=1up;seq=389|archive-date=6 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

The ''[[British Critic]]'', a conservative and high-church journal, attacked the novel's flaws as the fault of the author: 
<blockquote>The writer of it is, we understand, a female; this is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the novel; but if our authoress can forget the gentleness of her sex, it is no reason why we should; and we shall therefore dismiss the novel without further comment.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=April 1818|title=Art. XII. Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus. 3 vols. 12mo. 16s. 6d. Lackington and Co. 1818.|url=https://romantic-circles.org/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/bcrev.html|journal=The British Critic |series=New Series|volume=9|pages=432–438|access-date=14 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114224651/https://romantic-circles.org/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/bcrev.html|archive-date=14 January 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> </blockquote>

''The Literary Panorama and National Register'' attacked the novel as a "feeble imitation of [[William Godwin|Mr. Godwin]]'s novels" produced by the "daughter of a celebrated living novelist."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=June 1818|title=Frankenstein; or, the modern Prometheus. 3 vols. Lackington and Co. 1818|url=https://romantic-circles.org/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/lprev.html|journal=The Literary Panorama and National Register |series=New Series|volume=8|pages=411–414|access-date=14 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114225926/https://romantic-circles.org/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/lprev.html|archive-date=14 January 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:peake-1823-play.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Cover of the 1823 West End stage play, ''[[Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein]]'', the first adaptation of the novel]]

Despite these reviews, ''Frankenstein'' achieved an almost immediate popular success. It became widely known, especially through melodramatic theatrical adaptations. The first adaptation, ''[[Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein]]'', a play by [[Richard Brinsley Peake]], was performed thirty-seven times at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|English Opera House]] in the [[West End theatre|West End]] during the 1823 season. The acclaim it received caused a second printing of Shelley's novel and other theatrical adaptations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hoeveler |first1=Diane Long |title=The Cambridge Companion to Frankenstein |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=175–189}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Plath |first1=James |last2=Sinclair |first2=Gail |last3=Curnutt |first3=Kirk |title=The 100 Greatest Literary Characters |date=2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=94}}</ref> Shelley attended a performance on 29 August 1823 and following the success of the play she wrote, "lo & behold! I found myself famous!".<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Andrew |title=The Cambridge Companion to Frankenstein |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=20}}</ref>

Critical reception of ''Frankenstein'' has been largely positive since the mid-20th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/frankenstein-modern-prometheus-mary-wollstonecraft |title=Enotes.com |publisher=Enotes.com |access-date=28 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100924042953/http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/frankenstein-modern-prometheus-mary-wollstonecraft |archive-date=24 September 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> Major critics such as M. A. Goldberg and [[Harold Bloom]] have praised the "aesthetic and moral" relevance of the novel,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.octc.kctcs.edu/crunyon/CE/Frankenstein/Bloom/4-7_BloomIntro.htm |title=KCTCS.edu |publisher=Octc.kctcs.edu |access-date=28 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041115203418/http://www.octc.kctcs.edu/crunyon/CE/Frankenstein/Bloom/4-7_BloomIntro.htm |archive-date=15 November 2004 |url-status=dead }}</ref> although there have also been critics, such as [[Germaine Greer]], who criticized the novel for technical and narrative defects: for example, she claimed that its three narrators all speak in the same way.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/09/gender.books | title=Yes, Frankenstein really was written by Mary Shelley. It's obvious – because the book is so bad | work=The Guardian|location=London | author=Germaine Greer | date=2007-04-09 | access-date=2016-10-04 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006091847/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/09/gender.books | archive-date=6 October 2016 | url-status=live }}</ref> In more recent years the novel has become a popular subject for psychoanalytic and feminist criticism: Lawrence Lipking states: "[E]ven the [[Jacques Lacan|Lacanian]] subgroup of psychoanalytic criticism, for instance, has produced at least half a dozen discrete readings of the novel".<ref>L. Lipking. Frankenstein the True Story; or [[Rousseau]] Judges Jean-Jacques. (Published in the [[W. W. Norton & Company|Norton]] critical edition. 1996)</ref> ''Frankenstein'' has frequently been recommended on ''Five Books'', with literary scholars, psychologists, novelists, and historians citing it as an influential text.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fivebooks.com/book/frankenstein-by-mary-shelley/|title=Frankenstein by Mary Shelley {{!}} Five Books Expert Reviews|author=Five Books|website=Five Books|access-date=2019-09-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324222556/https://fivebooks.com/book/frankenstein-by-mary-shelley/|archive-date=24 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Today, the novel is generally considered to be a landmark work as one of the greatest Romantic and Gothic novels, as well as one of the first science fiction novels.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Lynn |last=Alexander|publisher=Department of English, University of Tennessee at Martin|url=http://www.utm.edu/staff/lalexand/frankqst.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203105236/http://www.utm.edu/staff/lalexand/frankqst.htm|archive-date=3 December 2010|url-status=dead|access-date=27 August 2009 |title=Mary Shelley, ''Frankenstein''}}</ref>

[[Brian Aldiss]] has argued for regarding it as the [[History of science fiction|first true science-fiction]] story. In contrast to previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science fiction, Aldiss states, the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and "turns to modern experiments in the laboratory" to achieve fantastic results.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aldiss|first=Brian Wilson|url=http://archive.org/details/detachedretinaas00aldi|title=The detached retina : aspects of SF and fantasy|date=1995|publisher=Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-8156-2681-7}}</ref>

Film director [[Guillermo del Toro]] describes ''Frankenstein'' as "the quintessential teenage book", noting that the feelings that "You don't belong. You were brought to this world by people that don't care for you and you are thrown into a world of pain and suffering, and tears and hunger" are an important part of the story. He adds that "it's an amazing book written by a teenage girl. It's mind-blowing."<ref name="BBC 2018"/> Professor of philosophy [[Patricia MacCormack]] says that the Creature addresses the most fundamental human questions: "It's the idea of asking your maker what your purpose is. Why are we here, what can we do?"<ref name="BBC 2018">{{cite news|title=Frankenstein: Behind the monster smash|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42411484|publisher=BBC|date=1 January 2018|access-date=21 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727232736/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42411484|archive-date=27 July 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 5 November 2019, [[BBC News]] included ''Frankenstein'' in its list of the [[BBC list of 100 'most inspiring' novels|100 most influential novels]].<ref name=Bbc2019-11-05/> In 2018, [[Jersey Post]] released series of 8 stamps celebrating the 200th anniversary of ''Frankenstein''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein! Eight spooky stamps introduced by Jersey Post |url=https://findyourstampsvalue.com/news/celebrating-the-200th-anniversary-of-frankenstein-eight-spooky-stamps-introduced-by-jersey-post |website=findyourstampsvalue.com |date=May 8, 2018 |access-date=November 28, 2024}}</ref> In 2021 it was one of six classic science fiction novels by British authors selected by [[Royal Mail]] to be featured on a [[Great Britain commemorative stamps 2020–2029#2021|series of UK postage stamps]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/national/19220163.stamps-feature-original-artworks-celebrating-classic-science-fiction-novels/|title=Stamps to feature original artworks celebrating classic science fiction novels|website=Yorkpress.co.uk|date=9 April 2021|accessdate=20 September 2022}}</ref>

==Films, plays, television and comic books==
[[File:Frankenstein - Edison Mfg. Co., 1910.webm|thumb|In 1910, [[Edison Studios]] released the [[Frankenstein (1910 film)|first motion-picture adaptation]] of Shelley's story.]]
{{Main|Frankenstein in popular culture{{!}}''Frankenstein'' in popular culture|List of films featuring Frankenstein's monster}}
The [[Frankenstein (1931 film)|1931 film]], with [[Boris Karloff]] playing the monster, is considered the most well-known portrayal of Frankenstein.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Anderson|first=John|date=2022-01-25|title='Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster' Review: A Very Different Creature|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/boris-karloff-the-man-behind-the-monster-shudder-frankenstein-the-mummy-how-the-grinch-stole-christmas-11643149446|access-date=2022-01-26|issn=0099-9660}}</ref> The [[Hammer Film Productions|Hammer Horror films]] focused on the character of Dr Frankenstein (played by [[Peter Cushing]] in [[Frankenstein (Hammer film series)|six films]] beginning with the [[The Curse of Frankenstein|1957 film]]) rather than his monster.<ref>{{cite news |title=Peter Cushing: 10 essential films |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/peter-cushing-10-essential-films |access-date=7 November 2025 |work=BFI}}</ref>

In December 1945, the [[Gilberton (publisher)|Gilberton Company]] issued a comic book version of ''Frankenstein'' as No. 26 in its long-running ''[[Classics Illustrated]]'' series, with illustrations by Robert Hayward Webb and [[Ann Brewster]]. The title went through nineteen printings between 1945 and 1971,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones Jr. |first=William B |title=Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, with Illustrations |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2002 |isbn=0-7864-1077-9 |location=North Carolina |pages=40–41 |language=en}}</ref> and has been praised by comics historian Mike Benton as "probably the most faithful adaptation of the original novel -- movies included."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benton |first=Mike |title=Horror Comics: The Illustrated History |publisher=Taylor Publishing Company |year=1991 |location=Dallas |publication-date=1991 |pages=10}}</ref>

[[Manga]] artist and writer [[Junji Ito]], best known for his horror work, published a comics adaptation of ''Frankenstein'', which won an Eisner Award in 2019 for “Best Adaptation from Another Medium.”<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2021 |title=Junji Ito's contemporary visual adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. A comparative study |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1020434 |journal=Lingua. Language and Culture |language=English |volume=XX |issue=2 |pages=247–259 |issn=2068-5351}}</ref>

==See also==
{{cols|colwidth=21em}}
* [[Authorship of Frankenstein]]
* [[Transhumanism#Dehumanization|''Frankenstein'' argument]]
* {{annotated link|Frankenstein complex}}
* {{annotated link|Frankenstein in Baghdad|''Frankenstein in Baghdad''}}
* [[Frankenstein in popular culture|''Frankenstein'' in popular culture]]
* [[Frankenstein's Promethean dimension]]
* {{annotated link|Golem}}
* {{annotated link|Gothic (film)|''Gothic'' (film)}}
* {{annotated link|Gothic aspects in Frankenstein}}
* {{annotated link|Homunculus}}
* {{annotated link|John Murray Spear}}
* [[List of works based on dreams]]
{{colend}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name=Bbc2019-11-05>{{cite news
| url       = https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50302788
| title       = 100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts
| publisher       = [[BBC News]]
| date       = 2019-11-05
| archive-url       = https://web.archive.org/web/20191108030557/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50302788
| archive-date       = 8 November 2019
| access-date       = 2019-11-10
| url-status       = live
| quote       = The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.
}}</ref>
}}

== Sources ==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* Aldiss, Brian W. "On the Origin of Species: Mary Shelley". ''Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction''. Eds. James Gunn and Matthew Candelaria. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow, 2005.
* Baldick, Chris. ''In Frankenstein's Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-Century Writing''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
* Bann, Stephen, ed. ''"Frankenstein": Creation and Monstrosity''. London: Reaktion, 1994.
* Behrendt, Stephen C., ed. ''Approaches to Teaching Shelley's "Frankenstein"''. New York: MLA, 1990.
* {{cite book|editor-last1=Bennett|editor-first1= Betty T. |editor-last2= Stuart|editor-first2= Curran|title=Mary Shelley in Her Times|location=Baltimore|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|year= 2000|isbn=0801877334}}
* {{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Betty T.|title=Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: An Introduction|location=Baltimore|publisher= [[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|year=1998|isbn=080185976X}}
* Bohls, Elizabeth A. "Standards of Taste, Discourses of 'Race', and the Aesthetic Education of a Monster: Critique of Empire in ''Frankenstein''". ''Eighteenth-Century Life'' 18.3 (1994): 23–36.
* Botting, Fred. ''Making Monstrous: "Frankenstein", Criticism, Theory''. New York: St. Martin's, 1991.
* Chapman, D. ''That Not Impossible She: A study of gender construction and Individualism in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'', UK: Concept, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1480047617}}
* Clery, E. J. ''Women's Gothic: From Clara Reeve to Mary Shelley''. Plymouth: Northcote House, 2000.
* Conger, Syndy M., Frederick S. Frank, and Gregory O'Dea, eds. ''Iconoclastic Departures: Mary Shelley after "Frankenstein": Essays in Honor of the Bicentenary of Mary Shelley's Birth''. Madison, New Jersey: [[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]], 1997.
* Donawerth, Jane. ''Frankenstein's Daughters: Women Writing Science Fiction''. Syracuse: [[Syracuse University Press]], 1997.
* Douthwaite, Julia V. "The Frankenstein of the French Revolution," chapter two of [http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo13265096.html The Frankenstein of 1790 and other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116230136/http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo13265096.html |date=16 November 2012 }}. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
* Dunn, Richard J. "Narrative Distance in ''Frankenstein''". ''Studies in the Novel'' 6 (1974): 408–17.
* Eberle-Sinatra, Michael, ed. ''Mary Shelley's Fictions: From "Frankenstein" to "Falkner"''. New York: [[St. Martin's Press]], 2000.
* Ellis, Kate Ferguson. ''The Contested Castle: Gothic Novels and the Subversion of Domestic Ideology''. Urbana: [[University of Illinois Press]], 1989.
* {{Cite book |last = Florescu |first = Radu |author-link = Radu Florescu |year = 1996 |title = In Search of Frankenstein: Exploring the Myths Behind Mary Shelley's Monster |edition = 2nd |location = London |publisher = [[Robson Books]] |isbn = 978-1-861-05033-5 |url-access = registration |url = https://archive.org/details/insearchoffranke0000flor }}
* Forry, Steven Earl. ''Hideous Progenies: Dramatizations of "Frankenstein" from Mary Shelley to the Present''. Philadelphia: [[University of Pennsylvania Press]], 1990.
* Freedman, Carl. "Hail Mary: On the Author of ''Frankenstein'' and the Origins of Science Fiction". ''Science Fiction Studies'' 29.2 (2002): 253–64.
* Gigante, Denise. "Facing the Ugly: The Case of ''Frankenstein''". ''ELH'' 67.2 (2000): 565–87.
* Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar. ''The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
* Hay, Daisy "Young Romantics" (2010): 103.
* Heffernan, James A. W. "Looking at the Monster: ''Frankenstein'' and Film". ''Critical Inquiry'' 24.1 (1997): 133–58.
* Hodges, Devon. "''Frankenstein'' and the Feminine Subversion of the Novel". ''Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature'' 2.2 (1983): 155–64.
* Hoeveler, Diane Long. ''Gothic Feminism: The Professionalization of Gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontës''. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.
* [[Richard Holmes (biographer)|Holmes, Richard]]. ''Shelley: The Pursuit''. 1974. London: Harper Perennial, 2003. {{ISBN|0-00-720458-2}}.
* {{Cite journal |last = Jones |first = Frederick L. |year = 1952 |title = Shelley and Milton |journal = Studies in Philology |volume = 49 |number = 3 |pages = 488–519 |jstor = 4173024 }}
* Knoepflmacher, U. C. and [[George Levine]], eds. ''The Endurance of "Frankenstein": Essays on Mary Shelley's Novel''. Berkeley: [[University of California Press]], 1979.
* Lew, Joseph W. "The Deceptive Other: Mary Shelley's Critique of Orientalism in ''Frankenstein''". ''Studies in Romanticism'' 30.2 (1991): 255–83.
* London, Bette. "Mary Shelley, ''Frankenstein'', and the Spectacle of Masculinity". ''PMLA'' 108.2 (1993): 256–67.
* Mellor, Anne K. ''Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters''. New York: Methuen, 1988.
* Michaud, Nicolas, ''Frankenstein and Philosophy: The Shocking Truth'', Chicago: Open Court, 2013.
* Miles, Robert. ''Gothic Writing 1750–1820: A Genealogy''. London: Routledge, 1993.
* Milner, Andrew. ''Literature, Culture and Society''. London: Routledge, 2005, ch.5.
* O'Flinn, Paul. "Production and Reproduction: The Case of ''Frankenstein''". ''Literature and History'' 9.2 (1983): 194–213.
* Poovey, Mary. ''The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen''. Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]], 1984.
* Rauch, Alan. "The Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''". ''Studies in Romanticism'' 34.2 (1995): 227–53.
* Selbanev, Xtopher. "Natural Philosophy of the Soul", Western Press, 1999.
* Schor, Esther, ed. ''The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 2003.
* {{cite journal|last=Scott|first= Grant F. |title=Victor's Secret: Queer Gothic in Lynd Ward's Illustrations to Frankenstein (1934)|journal=Word & Image |date= April–June 2012|volume = 28|issue= 2 |pages= 206–32|doi=10.1080/02666286.2012.687545|s2cid= 154238300 }}
* Smith, Johanna M., ed. ''Frankenstein''. ''Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism''. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1992.
* [[Muriel Spark|Spark, Muriel]]. ''Mary Shelley''. London: Cardinal, 1987. {{ISBN|0-7474-0318-X}}.
* Stableford, Brian. "''Frankenstein'' and the Origins of Science Fiction". ''Anticipations: Essays on Early Science Fiction and Its Precursors''. Ed. David Seed. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
* {{cite book|author-link=Emily W Sunstein|last=Sunstein|first= Emily W.|title=Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality|year= 1989| location=Baltimore|publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press |edition=1991 |isbn=0801842182}}
* Tropp, Martin. ''Mary Shelley's Monster''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.
* Veeder, William. ''Mary Shelley & Frankenstein: The Fate of Androgyny''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
* Williams, Anne. ''The Art of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite news |last1=Holmes |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Holmes (biographer) |title=Out of Control |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/12/21/frankenstein-out-of-control/ |access-date=29 December 2024 |work=[[The New York Review of Books]] |date=21 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171214073411/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/12/21/frankenstein-out-of-control/ |archive-date=2017-12-14 |language=en |quote=After two hundred years, how exactly are we to go back to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ itself, as distinct from its proliferating, multimedia myth?}}, review of:
:* Mary Shelley, ''Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds'', edited by [[David H. Guston]], Ed Finn, and Jason Scott Robert, [[MIT Press]], 277 pp.
:* Mary Shelley, ''The New Annotated Frankenstein'', edited and with a foreword and notes by [[Leslie S. Klinger]], [[Liveright]], 352 pp.), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXIV, no. 20 (21 December 2017), pp.&nbsp;38, 40–41.

===Editions===
====1818 text====
* ''Frankenstein: 1818 text'' (Oxford University Press, 2009). Edited with an introduction and notes by [[Marilyn Butler]].
* ''The New Annotated Frankenstein''. (Overnight, 2017). Edited and with supplementary texts by [[Leslie S. Klinger]]. 
*  ''Frankenstein: The 1818 Text'' (Penguin Books, 2018). Edited with an introduction by [[Charlotte Gordon]].
* ''[https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/3542/FrankensteinAnnotated-for-Scientists-Engineers-and Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds]'', edited by David H. Guston, Ed Finn, and Jason Scott Robert, [[MIT Press]], 277 pp. {{doi|10.7551/mitpress/10815.001.0001}}{{open access}}

====1831 text====
* ''Three Gothic Novels'' (Penguin English Library, 1968). Edited by Peter Fairclough, With an introductory essay by [[Mario Praz]]. Also includes the full texts of [[Horace Walpole]]'s ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' and [[William Beckford (novelist)|William Beckford]]'s ''[[Vathek]]''.
* ''Frankenstein'' (Oxford University Press, 2008). Edited with an introduction and notes by [[M. K. Joseph]].

===Differences between 1818 and 1831 text===
Changes include: 

* The epigraph from Milton's ''Paradise Lost'' has been removed.
* Chapter One is expanded and split into two chapters.
* Elizabeth is changed from Victor's cousin to an orphan.
* Victor is portrayed more kindly in the original text. In the 1831 edition, Shelley is more critical of his decisions and actions.
* Shelley removed many references to scientific ideas which were popular around the time she wrote the 1818 edition of the book.
* Characters in the 1831 version have some dialogue removed entirely, while others receive new dialogue.

==External links==
{{sister project links|display=''Frankenstein''|d=Q150827|c=Category:Frankenstein|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100510033706/http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/mws.html Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: Chronology and Resources] at [[Romantic Circles]]<!-- Last Modified on 28 June, 1999; Page created by Shanon Lawson. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510033706/http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/mws.html |date=10 May 2010}} -->
* {{cite web <!-- |last1=Stoicheff |first1=Peter |last2=Owen |first2=Corey |last3=Bath |first3=Jon |last4=Deshaye |first4=Joel |last5=Mitchell |first5=Dave --> |title=Frankenstein: a hypertext resource |url=https://drc.usask.ca/projects/frankenstein/mainindex.htm |website=English Department |publisher=<!-- Digital Research Centre, --> [[University of Saskatchewan]] <!-- |access-date=29 December 2024 |date=August 23, 1999 -->}}
* [https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/ Frankenstein] at [[SparkNotes]]

'''Editions'''
* {{Gutenberg|no=41445|name=Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus 1818 edition}}
* {{Gutenberg|no=42324|name=Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus 1831 edition}}
* [https://romantic-circles.org/index.php/editions/frankenstein/editions.2009.frankenstein Frankenstein] at [[Romantic Circles]]
:: online texts of 1818 and 1831 editions and copious annotations
* {{Librivox book | title=Frankenstein | author=Mary Shelley}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/mary-shelley/frankenstein}}

'''Sources'''
* Shelley's notebooks with her handwritten draft of ''Frankenstein''
:* [http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/Frankenstein-notebook-reader#page/1/mode/2up Volume one] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810021645/http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/Frankenstein-notebook-reader#page/1/mode/2up |date=10 August 2019 }}
:*[http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/Frankenstein-notebook-reader2#page/1/mode/2up Volume two] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130094927/http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/Frankenstein-notebook-reader2#page/1/mode/2up |date=30 January 2018 }}

'''Reception'''
* [http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/PShelley/frankrev.html On ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''], a review by [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]


{{Frankenstein|state=expanded}}
{{Mary Shelley}}

{{Feminist science fiction}}

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{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Frankenstein|access_date=2026-02-23}}