Complete Works of Mary Shelley Read online

  Table of Contents

  The Novels

  FRANKENSTEIN (1818 version)

  FRANKENSTEIN (1831 version)

  MATHILDA

  VALPERGA

  THE LAST MAN

  THE FORTUNES OF PERKIN WARBECK

  LODORE

  FALKNER

  The Short Stories

  LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  The Children’s Fiction

  PROSERPINE

  MIDAS

  The Poems

  LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  The Travel Writing

  HISTORY OF A SIX WEEKS’ TOUR THROUGH A PART OF FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, GERMANY, AND HOLLAND

  RAMBLES IN GERMANY AND ITALY, IN 1840, 1842, AND 1843

  The Non-Fiction

  NOTES TO THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

  An Adaptation

  PRESUMPTION; OR, THE FATE OF FRANKENSTEIN by Richard Brinsley Peake

  The Biographies

  THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY by Florence A. Thomas Marshall

  MRS. SHELLEY by Lucy M. Rossetti

  The Complete Works of

  MARY SHELLEY

  (1797–1851)

  Contents

  The Novels

  FRANKENSTEIN (1818 version)

  FRANKENSTEIN (1831 version)

  MATHILDA

  VALPERGA

  THE LAST MAN

  THE FORTUNES OF PERKIN WARBECK

  LODORE

  FALKNER

  The Short Stories

  LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  The Children’s Fiction

  PROSERPINE

  MIDAS

  The Poems

  LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  The Travel Writing

  HISTORY OF A SIX WEEKS’ TOUR THROUGH A PART OF FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, GERMANY, AND HOLLAND

  RAMBLES IN GERMANY AND ITALY, IN 1840, 1842, AND 1843

  The Non-Fiction

  NOTES TO THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

  An Adaptation

  PRESUMPTION; OR, THE FATE OF FRANKENSTEIN by Richard Brinsley Peake

  The Biographies

  THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY by Florence A. Thomas Marshall

  MRS. SHELLEY by Lucy M. Rossetti

  © Delphi Classics 2013

  Version 1

  The Complete Works of

  MARY SHELLEY

  By Delphi Classics, 2013

  Interested in Mary Shelley?

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  For the first time in publishing history, Delphi Classics is proud to present the complete works of these two writers. Stoker’s gothic horror stories and Shelley’s beautiful poetry will provide perfect supplements to the reading of Mary Shelley’s works.

  www.delphiclassics.com

  The Novels

  The Polygon (left) in Somers Town, London — Mary Shelley’s birthplace

  The site of the birthplace today

  FRANKENSTEIN (1818 version)

  Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was first published in three volumes on New Year’s Day 1818 by the publishing house Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones. The author was anonymous and the novel was dedicated to Shelley’s father, the journalist, political philosopher and novelist, William Godwin. There was a second two volume edition published in 1823 and then a third one volume edition published in 1831 which contained significant revisions to the previous versions. Both the original 1818 version and the revised 1831 version are presented in this edition of Shelley’s works.

  The origins of Frankenstein began in the summer of 1816 when Shelley was staying at the Villa Diodati, near Lake Geneva in Switzerland along with her poet husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, her step-sister Claire Clairmont, and Dr John Polidari. They had been enjoying telling each other German ghost stories when they entered into a competition to determine who could create the best fantastical tale. The result of this contest produced Polidari’s 1819 novella The Vampyre, one of the first stories of the vampire literary genre and Shelley’s Frankenstein. The inspiration for the novel did not come immediately to Shelley but was formed after she saw a vision of what would become the creature.

  The novel was immediately successful and spawned the play Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein by Richard Brinsley Peake in 1823. Demonstrating the popularity of Shelley’s masterpiece, the adaptation is also presented in this collection and can be accessed via this link. Frankenstein’s creature has since become iconic and the narrative has been adapted over forty times for film, inspiring more than sixty television series. It remains a classic of the Gothic genre and is by far Shelly’s most successful work. The fame of the creature has become so vast that it is not uncommon for it to be believed that Frankenstein is the creation rather than the creator. The novel tells the tale of Frankenstein, a young man who becomes obsessed with the possibility of creating life but is then horrified by the result and must live with consequences of his deed. The subtitle of the novel, The Modern Prometheus, clearly establishes the link between Frankenstein and the Greek Titan who disobeyed God and gave fire to mankind. Frankenstein attempts to usurp God by creating a being in his own image and is punished throughout the novel for this arrogance and deviation from nature.

  However, while the Promethean myth can be interpreted in solely negative terms as an intention to compete with God, the tale has also viewed Prometheus as a hero that strove to improve humankind and elevate man while resisting the tyranny of God. The positioning of Prometheus as a great figure of lone genius who fought for the rights of mankind was particularly prevalent amongst Romantic writers and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s lyric drama Prometheus Unbound (1820) portrays the immortal figure as being able to overcome the tyranny of God with the power of the human heart. Mary Shelley’s novel is not a critique on the advancement of scientific experiment or human presumption in questioning God or religion, but it does explore the danger of an obsessive and egotistical pursuit of knowledge and the necessary responsibility that such endeavours entail. One of the creature’s bitterest reprimands of Frankenstein is that of desertion; the creator must bear some responsibility for his creation and Frankenstein’s abandonment and contempt for the creature is cruel and heartless.

  Shelley uses the creature as a literary double for Frankenstein; they are bound together and one becomes the obsession of the other. Broadly both characters can be seen as monstrous due to their actions, being consumed by vengeance, self-hatred, loneliness and despair. While Frankenstein begins his descent by pursuing knowledge to the extent he becomes separated from humanity; the creature’s misery is compounded when he learns the nature of the human world and his permanent isolation from it. Shelley further exploits the Gothic fiction technique of doubling with the character of Henry Clerval. Frankenstein’s childhood friend is the better image of himself, the one who is able to restore humanity to Frankenstein; he is the idealised version of the fallen creator, who does not become contaminated by the desire for self-regarding glory. Shelley makes the doubling explicit when Frankenstein states that Clerval was the ‘image of’ his ‘former self’, the uncorrupted man who is able to revel in the sensations of nature.

  Doubling is just one aspect of the Gothic genre that Shelley employs in creating a dark and unnerving novel; horror, revenge, isolation, uncontrollable and unacceptable passions and the intermingling of sex and violenc
e all permeate Shelley’s text and help to achieve the pulsating, but disturbing narrative. There is uneasiness and even a sense of revulsion that Frankenstein feels towards the idea of sex, and his relationship with the creature develops matrimonial undertones which highlight the Gothic convention of unnatural and perverse relationships, particularly the notion of incest. The enormous impact of Frankenstein continues to this day with the hugely successful 2011 production by Danny Boyle at the National Theatre in England. The acclaimed drama achieved a ten week sold out run and resulted in acting awards for the main two performers, Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch, proving the popularity and thematic relevance of Shelley’s seminal work, retaining its potency for both modern readers and audiences.

  John Polidori (1795–1821) was a fiction writer and physician of Italian descent. He is known for his associations with the Romantic Movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre after writing his 1819 short story, as part of the famous writing competition with Shelley.

  Lord Byron, a leading figure in the Romantic movement, was also a part of the famous literary writing competition

  Hotel D’Angleterre in Geneva, where Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’

  An original copy of the manuscript

  The extremely rare and valuable first edition

  The first edition’s title page

  The frontispiece

  CONTENTS

  PREFACE.

  VOLUME I

  LETTER I.

  LETTER II.

  LETTER III.

  LETTER IV.

  CHAPTER I.

  CHAPTER II.

  CHAPTER III.

  CHAPTER IV.

  CHAPTER V.

  CHAPTER VI.

  CHAPTER VII.

  VOLUME II

  CHAPTER I.

  CHAPTER II.

  CHAPTER III.

  CHAPTER IV.

  CHAPTER V.

  CHAPTER VI.

  CHAPTER VII.

  CHAPTER VIII.

  CHAPTER IX.

  VOLUME III

  CHAPTER I.

  CHAPTER II.

  CHAPTER III.

  CHAPTER IV.

  CHAPTER V.

  CHAPTER VI.

  CHAPTER VII.

  The 1910 film made by Edison Studios was the first motion picture adaptation of ‘Frankenstein’.

  The creature in the film

  The famous 1931 film adaptation

  Boris Karloff, who is famous for playing Frankenstein’s creature in the 1931 film adaptation

  From 1957-1974 Hammer Films produced a string of Frankenstein films starring Peter Cushing, including ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’.

  The 1994 film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Robert De Niro as the creature

  A scene from Danny Boyle’s hugely successful 2011 theatre adaptation

  PREFACE.

  The event on which this fiction is founded has been supposed, by Dr. Darwin, and some of the physiological writers of Germany, as not of impossible occurrence. I shall not be supposed as according the remotest degree of serious faith to such an imagination; yet, in assuming it as the basis of a work of fancy, I have not considered myself as merely weaving a series of supernatural terrors. The event on which the interest of the story depends is exempt from the disadvantages of a mere tale of spectres or enchantment. It was recommended by the novelty of the situations which it developes; and, however impossible as a physical fact, affords a point of view to the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield.

  I have thus endeavoured to preserve the truth of the elementary principles of human nature, while I have not scrupled to innovate upon their combinations. The Iliad, the tragic poetry of Greece, — Shakespeare, in the Tempest and Midsummer Night’s Dream, — and most especially Milton, in Paradise Lost, conform to this rule; and the most humble novelist, who seeks to confer or receive amusement from his labours, may, without presumption, apply to prose fiction a licence, or rather a rule, from the adoption of which so many exquisite combinations of human feeling have resulted in the highest specimens of poetry.

  The circumstance on which my story rests was suggested in casual conversation. It was commenced, partly as a source of amusement, and partly as an expedient for exercising any untried resources of mind. Other motives were mingled with these, as the work proceeded. I am by no means indifferent to the manner in which whatever moral tendencies exist in the sentiments or characters it contains shall affect the reader; yet my chief concern in this respect has been limited to the avoiding of the enervating effects of the novels of the present day, and to the exhibitions of the amiableness of domestic affection, and the excellence of universal virtue. The opinions which naturally spring from the character and situation of the hero are by no means to be conceived as existing always in my own conviction; nor is any inference justly to be drawn from the following pages as prejudicing any philosophical doctrine of whatever kind.

  It is a subject also of additional interest to the author, that this story was begun in the majestic region where the scene is principally laid, and in society which cannot cease to be regretted. I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we crowded around a blazing wood fire, and occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts, which happened to fall into our hands. These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation. Two other friends (a tale from the pen of one of whom would be far more acceptable to the public than any thing I can ever hope to produce) and myself agreed to write each a story, founded on some supernatural occurrence.

  The weather, however, suddenly became serene; and my two friends left me on a journey among the Alps, and lost, in the magnificent scenes which they present, all memory of their ghostly visions. The following tale is the only one which has been completed.

  VOLUME I

  LETTER I.

  To Mrs. Saville, England.

  St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17 — .

  You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I arrived here yesterday; and my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare, and increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking.

  I am already far north of London; and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh, I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves, and fills me with delight. Do you understand this feeling? This breeze, which has travelled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my day dreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible; its broad disk just skirting the horizon, and diffusing a perpetual splendour. There — for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators — there snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Its productions and features may be without example, as the phænomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death, and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native
river. But, supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.

  These reflections have dispelled the agitation with which I began my letter, and I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven; for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose, — a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. This expedition has been the favourite dream of my early years. I have read with ardour the accounts of the various voyages which have been made in the prospect of arriving at the North Pacific Ocean through the seas which surround the pole. You may remember, that a history of all the voyages made for purposes of discovery composed the whole of our good uncle Thomas’s library. My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading. These volumes were my study day and night, and my familiarity with them increased that regret which I had felt, as a child, on learning that my father’s dying injunction had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark in a sea-faring life.