Frankenstein

First published in 1818, reprinted in 1823, revised and reissued in 1831, Frankenstein has since seen a series of re-working. Read variously as a cautionary fable against Faustian ambition, a feminist critique of "male" science/Romanticism, an allegorization of class relations or an ambivalent exploration of the human psyche, Frankenstein invites (re)interpretation. This critical edition, based on the 1818 text, places the novel within its multiple intermeshed histories. The editor's introduction frames the text in terms of biographical echoes, intellectual debates and intertextual references while considering the politics of its composition, revision, and reception. Besides contemporary reviews and generic debates, this edition also carries two shorter fictions that complement Frankenstein—Mary Shelley's"The Mortal Immortal" and John Polidori's "The Vampyre".