Reimagining Frankenstein by Holly Banks

Frankenstein By

Mary Shelley Edited by Holly Banks

Copyright Š 2019 By Holly Banks First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Banks Publishing 18 Appleby Road Bath BA2 1ZZ Holly Banks has asserted her moral right under the Copyrights, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identiďŹ ed as the author of this work.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval systems in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording without prior written permission from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library.

ISBN 912-2-3424-7589-0

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Contents Introduction

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Mary Shelley’s life

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Similar books in this collection

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The Text

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Introduction to Frankenstein

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was originally published in 1816.

The book, by 21-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is frequently called the world’s first science fiction novel. In Shelley’s tale, a scientist animates a creature constructed from dismembered corpses. The gentle, intellectually gifted creature is enormous and physically hideous. Cruelly rejected by its creator, it wanders, seeking companionship and becoming increasingly brutal as it fails to find a mate. When people think Frankenstein, they think gore, horror and monsters. The story has been sensationalised and mistranslated and so this edition aims to bring Frankenstein back to it’s roots. The cover is pivotal in branding and marketing Frankenstein to the correct audience. By using an illustrated edition, we cut out the gore and horror driven narrative, and instead, are allowed to illustrate an inviting tale.

By giving a chronology of Mary Shelley’s life, we encourage our readers to understand Shelley and invest in the author and not just the narrative we assume. This also encourages the most avid readers to test how much they know about her! Finally by offering a list of other books in the collection ‘reimagining the classics’, we are giving our readers a taste of not only what is to come, but also other things they may be interested in to. As previously stated this is a novel that is concerned with Science Fiction, gore and horror. Pivotally, though, there are other elements to the novel which are arguably

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more relevant to the story of Frankenstein we know and love. Family, friendships, loss, hope and mental health are arguably the most important factors to creating the legacy of Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley created the story on a rainy afternoon in 1816 in Geneva, where she was staying with her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their friend Lord Byron.

Byron proposed they each write a Gothic ghost story, but only Mary Shelley completed hers. Although serving as the basis for the Western horror story and the inspiration for numerous movies in the 20th century, the book Frankenstein is much more than pop fiction. The story explores philosophical themes and challenges Romantic ideals about the beauty and goodness of nature.

Mary Shelley led a life nearly as tumultuous as the monster she created. The daughter of free-thinking philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, she lost her mother days after her birth. She clashed with her stepmother and was sent to Scotland to live with foster parents during her early teens, then eloped with the married poet Shelley when she was 17. After Shelley’s wife committed suicide in 1817, the couple married but spent much of their time abroad, fleeing Shelley’s creditors. Mary Shelley gave birth to five children, but only one lived to adulthood. Mary was only 24 years old when Shelley drowned in a sailing accident; she went on to edit two volumes of his works. She lived on a small stipend from her father-in-law, Lord Shelley, until her surviving son inherited his fortune and title in 1844. She died at the age of 53. Although Mary Shelley was a respected writer for many years, only Frankenstein and her journals are still widely read.

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Chronology of Mary Shelley’s life Birth of Mary Shelley | August 30, 1797 Mary Shelley was born into a rich literary heritage. William Godwin, her father, was a political theorist, novelist, and publisher. Mary Wollstonecraft, her mother, was a writer and early feminist thinker Death of Mary Wollstonecraft (Mother) | September 9, 1797 Mary’s mother passes away due to puerperal fever ten days after her daughter’s birth Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelly Meet | 1812 Percy Bysshe Shelly (poet) was one of the people in her father’s intellectual circle.

The circle also included of William Hazlitt (critic), Charles Lamb (essayist), and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet).Mary was 15 Percy and Mary spend the summer of 1814 together | 1814 Percy is married, they still travel together Percy’s Child was Born Prematurely to the Couple | February 1815 Child died 12 days later Mary Recorded in her Journal | March 19, 1815 Possible inspiration for Frankenstein: “Dream that my little baby came to life again – that it had only been cold & that we rubbed it before the fire & it lived.”

Birth of William | January 1816 William, the son of Mary and Percy, is born Percy and Mary Shelley visit the poet Lord Byron | 1816 The couple visited Lord Byron at his villa beside Lake Geneva. Switzerland. When they visited, it was stormy weather forcing them indoors. Byron’s other guests sometimes read from a volume of ghost stories. One night, Byron challenged his guests to write a scary story themselves. Frankenstein was created.

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Mary and Percy Shelley marry | December 30, 1816 The couple married just weeks after Shelley’s first wife, Harriet, drowned.

Birth of Clara | 1817 Mary gave birth to another daughter, Clara, but she only lived a year Frankenstein is Published | 1818 When Mary was 21, she became a huge success. The first edition of the book had an unsigned preface by Percy Shelley. Many did not believe that she had the capability of writing the novel, and believed that Percy had written it for her Move from England to Italy | 1818 Birth of Percy Florence | 1819 Only one of the Shelley’s’ children that survived past childhood.

William Passes Away at Age 3 | 1819 The death of William caused Mary to suffer a nervous breakdown.

Mary and Percy Florence return to England | 1822 She devoted herself to her son’s welfare and education and continued her career as a professional writer.

Percy Shelley Drowns | 1822 Percy drowns in the Gulf of Spezia near Livorna. Leaves Mary as a 25 year old widow Mary Shelley Passes Away | February 1, 1851 She lived in England until her death from a brain tumour in Bournemouth. She was 54 years old. ,

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Similar books in this series Reimagining: Louisa May Alcott | Little Women Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre Charles Dickens | Great Expectations F. Scott Fitzgerald | The Great Gatsby Joseph Heller | Catch 22 Ernest Hemingway | The Old Man and the Sea Victor Hugo | Les Miserables Aldous Huxley | A Brave New World

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Vladimir Nabokov | Lolita J.D Salinger | The Catcher in the Rye William Shakespeare | Hamlet John Steinbeck | Of Mice and Men Robert Louis Stevenson | Treasure Island Bram Stoker | Dracula Henry David Thoreau | Walden Leo Tolstoy | War and Peace Mark Twain | Huckleberry Finn Edith Wharton | The Age of Innocence Virginia Woolf | Orlando

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Frankenstein takes the age-old story of love vs. hate, good vs. evil and hope vs. injustice and twists it so spectacularly, that even those that have never read the novel, understand the story. As the legend goes, Captain Walton listens to Victor Frankenstein’s gory retelling of the events in his life. Victor’s story brings up still relevant questions of Science’s responsibilities to the world and humans. Has Science gone too far in this novel? Is it possible for science to go too far? Reimagining Frankenstein takes this well-known story and opens it up to all readers, not just academics and well-read readers.