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In the summer of 1816, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, then eighteen
years old, began to write the novel Frankenstein after she and her
lover Percy Bysshe Shelley took part in a ghost-story competition
at Lord Byron's villa by Lake Geneva. Over the next nine months --
a period which saw their return to England in autumn 1816 and
subsequent marriage -- she (with Percy) drafted the entire novel in
a form materially different from the two standard editions of 1818
and 1831 which were based on a later fair copy. Until now, no one
has been able to read what Mary Shelley herself initially wrote in
this original draft of the novel. Going back to the unique draft
manuscript of the text held in the Bodleian Library, Charles E.
Robinson has teased out Percy Shelley's amendments, isolating them
from the story in Mary Shelley's hand. Both texts - with and
without Percy's interventions - are presented in this edition,
allowing us for the first time to read the story in Mary's original
hand and also to see how Percy edited his wife's prose. The results
are fascinating. We read a more rapidly paced novel that is
arranged in different chapters. Above all, we hear Mary's genuine
voice which sounds to us more modern, more immediately colloquial
than her husband's learned, more polished style. To this day,
Frankenstein remains the most popular work of science fiction. This
edition promises to redefine the ways we read the story and
perceive the act of its creation.
The original 1818 text of Mary Shelley's classic novel, with
annotations and essays highlighting its scientific, ethical, and
cautionary aspects. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has endured in the
popular imagination for two hundred years. Begun as a ghost story
by an intellectually and socially precocious eighteen-year-old
author during a cold and rainy summer on the shores of Lake Geneva,
the dramatic tale of Victor Frankenstein and his stitched-together
creature can be read as the ultimate parable of scientific hubris.
Victor, "the modern Prometheus," tried to do what he perhaps should
have left to Nature: create life. Although the novel is most often
discussed in literary-historical terms-as a seminal example of
romanticism or as a groundbreaking early work of science
fiction-Mary Shelley was keenly aware of contemporary scientific
developments and incorporated them into her story. In our era of
synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and climate
engineering, this edition of Frankenstein will resonate forcefully
for readers with a background or interest in science and
engineering, and anyone intrigued by the fundamental questions of
creativity and responsibility. This edition of Frankenstein pairs
the original 1818 version of the manuscript-meticulously
line-edited and amended by Charles E. Robinson, one of the world's
preeminent authorities on the text-with annotations and essays by
leading scholars exploring the social and ethical aspects of
scientific creativity raised by this remarkable story. The result
is a unique and accessible edition of one of the most
thought-provoking and influential novels ever written. Essays by
Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, Heather E. Douglas, Josephine
Johnston, Kate MacCord, Jane Maienschein, Anne K. Mellor, Alfred
Nordmann
Through The Dutch Canals And The Zuyder Zee, German Ocean, And
River Elbe.
Through The Dutch Canals And The Zuyder Zee, German Ocean, And
River Elbe.
Through The Dutch Canals And The Zuyder Zee, German Ocean, And
River Elbe.
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