Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus

About the book

An ambitious young student becomes absorbed in the possibility of creating life. His achievement raises questions he has scarcely begun to consider: what responsibility follows discovery, and what does a living being need from others? Shelley frames the story through travellers, letters, and competing accounts, asking readers to listen carefully before deciding whom to trust. Scientific aspiration sits beside the intimacy of family life and the isolation of immense landscapes. The novel is as interested in education, companionship, and rejection as it is in terror. Its unsettling force comes from the gap between wanting to accomplish something extraordinary and being willing to care for the consequences. This reading text follows the 1831 edition.

• Creation and responsibility
• Isolation
• Ambition

Why read it

For a Gothic story that gives its hardest questions more than one voice.

1831 edition · English text