Frankenstein

A stunning new clothbound edition of Mary Shelley's infamous work of horror fiction designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. This chilling gothic tale, begun when Mary Shelley was just nineteen years old, would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

Mary Shelley was born in London in 1797, daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, famous radical writers of the day. In 1814, she met and soon fell in love with the then-unknown Percy Bysshe Shelley. In December 1816, after Shelley's first wife committed suicide, Mary and Percy married. They lived in Italy from 1818 until 1822, when Percy drowned, whereupon Mary returned to London to live as a professional writer of novels, stories, and essays until her death in 1851.

Maurice Hindle is Senior Faculty Manager in Arts at London’s Open University, where he also teaches literature. In addition to Frankenstein, he has edited Caleb Williams and Dracula for Penguin Classics.

Coralie Bickford-Smith is an award-winning designer at Penguin Books (U.K.), where she has created several highly acclaimed series designs. She studied typography at Reading University and lives in London.