Beschreibung:

Shelley, Mary. FRANKENSTEIN; OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS. LACKINGTON, HUGHES, HARDING, MAVOR & JONES, 1818 12mo (191 x 112mm.), 3 volumes, first edition, half-titles, volume 1 with advertisement leaf K2, later full brown morocco by Bayntun, spines gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, some minor browning, wormhole to volume 2 (not affecting text) A fine copy of the first edition of the best known fiction of the Romantic era and first work of science fiction in English literature. In the introduction to the 1831 edition of her masterpiece of gothic horror, Mary Shelley recounts the story, now a famous moment in literary history, of the stormy night in June 1816 at the VIlla Diodati by Lake Geneva where she (still only eighteen years old), Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Lord Byron initiated a ghost-writing contest which led to the composition of Frankenstein. "From a 'waking dream' she created an instant myth that captured the public imagination. The story of the scientist and his creature rapidly permeated all levels of society, and became the material of theatrical productions, newspapers, political cartoons, parliamentary debate, translations, and countless inexpensive and/or pirated reprints..." (Betty T. Bennett, Oxford DNB). Since then the story of Frankenstein has, of course, continued to hold a central place as narrative and metaphor in the popular imagination, the most famous incarnation being, perhaps, the classic 1931 film adaptation starring Boris Karloff.