Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus (1818)

Written by Mary Shelley

Narrated by LibriVox Community

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. Shelley wrote the novel when she was 18 years old. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818, and this audiobook is read from that text. Shelley's name appeared on the revised third edition, published in 1831. The title of the novel refers to the scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In modern popular culture, people have tended to refer to the Creature as "Frankenstein" (especially in films since 1931), despite this being the name of the scientist, and the creature being unnamed in the book itself. Frankenstein is a novel infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. It is arguably considered the first fully-realised science fiction novel and raises many issues still relevant to today's society. (Summary from wikipedia.org, adapted by Cori Samuel.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley (1797-1851) was an English novelist. Born the daughter of William Godwin, a novelist and anarchist philosopher, and Mary Wollstonecraft, a political philosopher and pioneering feminist, Shelley was raised and educated by Godwin following the death of Wollstonecraft shortly after her birth. In 1814, she began her relationship with Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whom she would later marry following the death of his first wife, Harriet. In 1816, the Shelleys, joined by Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont, physician and writer John William Polidori, and poet Lord Byron, vacationed at the Villa Diodati near Geneva, Switzerland. They spent the unusually rainy summer writing and sharing stories and poems, and the event is now seen as a landmark moment in Romanticism. During their stay, Shelley composed her novel Frankenstein (1818), Byron continued his work on Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818), and Polidori wrote “The Vampyre” (1819), now recognized as the first modern vampire story to be published in English. In 1818, the Shelleys traveled to Italy, where their two young children died and Mary gave birth to Percy Florence Shelley, the only one of her children to survive into adulthood. Following Percy Bysshe Shelley’s drowning death in 1822, Mary returned to England to raise her son and establish herself as a professional writer. Over the next several decades, she wrote the historical novel Valperga (1923), the dystopian novel The Last Man (1826), and numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction. Recognized as one of the core figures of English Romanticism, Shelley is remembered as a woman whose tragic life and determined individualism enabled her to produce essential works of literature which continue to inform, shape, and inspire the horror and science fiction genres to this day.

Reviews for Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus (1818)

[judy griffin · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This reader must like to listen to her own voice. I certainly will not listen to her.

[Rebekah Johnson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was very sad ? I do recommend it to those who like sad books

[Kate Cobb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am obsessed. This will now be an annual reread.

[Coleman Richardson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This Narrator was great. She should get pain real money to do this

[Alexandra Jane Welcome · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story is a heart breaker. I just wish that the narrator had emotion. She used the same monotone voice for each character and narration.

[Craig Lester · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic book! I definitely recommend it! I read this book for an English class, and I thought it was going to be monotonous, but it wasn't. The themes in this text give you a glance at Mary Shelly's life. Over all, outstanding book!