Frankenstein

Written by Mary Shelley and Bill Bowler

Narrated by Multiple Narrators

'My name is Victor Frankenstein.' On a ship in the Arctic, Victor Frankenstein - ill and tired - tells the story of his sad life to the British man of science, Robert Walton. He talks of his family and friends in Geneva, and of his love for beautiful Elizabeth Lavenza. He speaks, too, about the terrible creature that he made from dead body parts when he was a university science student. He hates this monster, which has destroyed his life. But how does the monster feel about its maker?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Release date: Dec 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9780194609449

Mary Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in 1797, the daughter of two of the leading radical writers of the age. Her mother died just days after her birth and she was educated at home by her father and encouraged in literary pursuits. She eloped with and subsequently married the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, but their life together was full of hardship. The couple were ruined by disapproving parents and Mary lost three of her four children. Although its subject matter was extremely dark, her first novel Frankenstein (1818) was an instant sensation. Subsequent works such as Mathilda (1819), Valperga (1823) and The Last Man (1826) were less successful but are now finally receiving the critical acclaim that they deserve.