Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by SHELLEY, Mary W - 1833

Philadelphia: Carey, Lee and Blanchard, 1833. Hardcover. Very Good. First American edition. Two volumes. Octavos. 4pp. inserted publisher's ads, 201pp.; 197pp. followed by [23] inserted publisher's ads. Half-titles in each volume. Original publisher's muslin backed boards with paper spine labels. Housed in a quarter morocco and cloth clamshell case.

Contemporary owner's name of Hiester H. Muhlenberg on the title page of Volume I; spine and labels a bit darkened, chips at the corners of the labels removing a few letters, small triangular chip on the spine, and slight erosion at the crown, light tidemark on front board, chip to rear fly, all in Volume II, but a handsome and nice very good or better copy in the fragile and uncommon boards.

A not uninteresting longer note in a contemporary hand (probably that of the aforementioned Muhlenberg) on a blank at the conclusion of Volume II states: "Strange and terrible tale. What an imagination must have been thine thou gifted child of genius and of song. My brain even now aches so intently have I been perusing thy fantasies. So terrible has been the interest they have excited. Farewell terrible book. I wish not to look at it again." Hiester Henry Muhlenberg was a doctor from Reading, Pennsylvania who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1832 with his medical degree, the year before this edition was published. He later became a significant financier in Reading, Pennsylvania. Presumably Muhlenberg's familiarity with medicine and medical experimentation would have leant insights into his ruminations upon this work.

The novel was originally published in England in 1818 in three volumes. A remarkable achievement, combining gothic horror and romance, this book marked the creation of arguably the most famous monster in all of literature. The author was the daughter of author William Godwin and pioneer feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft. She had no formal education, composing this tale at the age of 21 in Geneva as her contribution to a friendly competition between writers to create the best ghost story (no mean task as the other writers were her husband the poet Percy Shelley, his friend Lord Byron, and Byron's physician, J.W. Polidori, whose entry, *The Vampyre*, was the first vampire story in English). Needless to say, history has judged her the winner and her creation is probably the defining myth of the industrial and technological ages. A stage hit throughout the 19th Century, it has been filmed many times, most notably by James Whale with Boris Karloff as the creature. Shelley's creation has become a cultural icon, both high and low, and can be found everywhere from Halloween candy to dissertations on artificial intelligence.