Frankenstein

This Top Five Classics illustrated edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein includes:


• All 65 woodcut illustrations by Lynd Ward from the 1934 edition

• The unabridged 1831 text of popular revised edition by Mary Shelley, as well as her complete, original 1818 text as an addendum

• A helpful introduction and author bio


Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is the foundational text of both the horror and science fiction genres, a classic that has been read, discussed, and adapted in every medium for going on 200 years. Dreamed up when the author was only 18 while on holiday in Switzerland with her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley and the poet Lord Byron, Frankenstein is the result of a challenge from Byron to each write their own “ghost story.” The result was a tale that would become synonymous with horror, that would be the first novel to ask the question, Are there some things man was not meant to know?


Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientist, discovers the secret to endowing inanimate flesh with life. Without thinking of the repercussions, he throws himself into realizing his ambition, only to recoil in terror at what he has created. Rejected by his creator and humanity, Frankenstein’s monster is driven by the primal desire to inspire love, or if to be cast aside, to inspire fear.


Containing both the common 1831 revised edition and the author’s original 1818 text of Frankenstein, this Top Five Classics edition also features all 65 of Lynd Ward’s hauntingly beautiful, moody, and subtly erotic woodcut illustrations from his 1934 edition.


Cover illustration by Adam Carabet