The Novels of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein, The Last Man, and Mathilda

Mary Shelley

Nov 2020 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

These three classic works by the nineteenth-century English novelist and pioneer of Gothic literature are emblematic of the Romantic era.

Frankenstein: The legend of Victor Frankenstein and the unholy monster he brings to life is a masterpiece of Romantic literature and one of the most famous horror stories ever written. Bound to each other by fate, the doctor and his creation engage in an obsessive, murderous pursuit of each other from Switzerland to the North Pole.

The Last Man: In this apocalyptic fantasy set at the end of the twenty-first century, a mysterious plague sweeps the globe, drawing ever nearer to England. As war and disease ravage humanity, ideals of fairness and love are quickly supplanted by the urgency of survival. Featuring semiautobiographical characters, this dystopian tale is also a critique of Romanticism.

Mathilda: This shocking and tragic tale of a woman haunted by her father’s incestuous love for her is thought to be based on author Mary Shelley’s own life. Written in 1819, her father and publisher, William Godwin, refused to print the story. It was finally published posthumously in 1959.

About the author

Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was the only daughter of the political philosopher William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, celebrated author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. At the age of sixteen, Shelley (then Mary Godwin) scandalized English society by eloping with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was married. Best known for the genre-defining Frankenstein (1818), she was a prolific writer of fiction, travelogues, and biographies during her lifetime, and was instrumental in securing the literary reputation of Percy Shelley after his tragic death.