Mary Shelley’s powerful tale of Gothic horror has been criticized and imitated since its publication in 1818.

Her electrifying story of an ambitious young scientist, Frankenstein, and the monster he unleashes questions the mystery of nature and the elusive ‘principle of life’, and in it Mary Shelley displays an astonishing ability to synthesize the prevailing philosophic attitudes of her day.

In his excellent introduction Maurice Hindle gives the biographical and literary background to Mary Shelley’s work — which includes the radical influence of her famous parents and the romantic idealism of her husband.

Chilling, prescient, compulsive and haunting, Frankenstein has become part of our mythology — a prophetic warning of the dangers of overweening and isolated scientific ambition.