Mary Shelley The Dover Reader
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The daughter of political philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley (1797–1851) created a remarkable body of work that includes novels, short stories, essays, plays, biographies, and travel books. For many years, she was remembered solely as the author of Frankenstein and the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; today her reputation has risen to that of a major figure in the world of Romantic literature.
This treasury offers the best of Mary Shelley's writings, starting with the complete text of her masterpiece, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, as well as the melancholy novella Mathilda and a significant excerpt from the apocalyptic classic The Last Man. In addition to the essay "On Ghosts," the collection includes a selection of short stories: "Transformation," "The Dream," "The Mortal Immortal," "The False Rhyme," and "Roger Dodsworth: The Reanimated Englishman."
Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, into a life of personal tragedy. In 1816, she married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and that summer traveled with him and a host of other Romantic intellectuals to Geneva. Her greatest achievement was piecing together one of the most terrifying and renowned stories of all time: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Shelley said she conceived of Frankenstein in “a waking dream.” This vision was simply of a student kneeling before a corpse brought to life. Yet this tale of a mad creator and his abomination has inspired a multitude of storytellers and artists. She died on February 1, 1851.
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