The Mary Shelley Reader

Renewed interest in the life and works of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley has in recent years generated new biographical studies, complete editions of her letters and short stories and journals, and fresh critical assessments of "Frankenstein" and her other fiction. Until now, however, there has been no anthology of her work. "The Mary Shelley Reader" is a unique collection that fills this gap. In addition to the original and complete 1818 version of her masterpiece "Frankenstein," the book offers a new text of Mary Shelley's novella "Mathilda" - an extraordinary tale of incest, guilt, and atonement that was not published until 1959 and has been out of print since then. Also included are seven of Mary Shelley's Short stories that range from gentle satire to fantastic tales of reanimation, diabolical transformation, and immortality. Eight of her essays and reviews are reprinted here for the first time since their original publication, and eleven representative letters help bring to life a remarkable literary and historical figure - author, daugher of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. An illuminating introduction, a chronology, explanatory notes, and a bibliography make "The Mary Shelley Reader" and indispensable resource for students of English Romantic literature.