- Richard Holmes, "Out of Control" (review of Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds, edited by David H. Guston, Ed Finn, and Jason Scott Robert, MIT Press, 277 pp.; and Mary Shelley, The New Annotated Frankenstein, edited and with a foreword and notes by Leslie S. Klinger, Liveright, 352 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXIV, no. 20 (21 December 2017), pp. 38, 40–41.
Editions
1818 text
- Shelley, Mary Frankenstein: 1818 text (Oxford University Press, 2009). Edited with an introduction and notes by Marilyn Butler.
- Shelley, Mary Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (Penguin Books, 2018). Edited with an introduction by Charlotte Gordon.
1831 text
- Fairclough, Peter (ed.) Three Gothic Novels: Walpole / Castle of Otranto, Beckford / Vathek, Mary Shelley / Frankenstein (Penguin English Library, 1968). With an introductory essay by Mario Praz.
- Shelley, Mary Frankenstein (Oxford University Press, 2008). Edited with an introduction and notes by M. K. Joseph.
Differences between 1818 and 1831 text
Shelley made several alterations in the 1831 edition including:
- The epigraph from Milton's Paradise Lost found in the 1818 original has been removed.
- Chapter one is expanded and split into two chapters.
- Elizabeth's origin is changed from Victor's cousin to being an orphan.
- Victor is portrayed more sympathetically in the original text. In the 1831 edition however, Shelley is critical of his decisions and actions.
- Shelley removed many references to scientific ideas which were popular around the time she wrote the 1818 edition of the book.
- Characters in the 1831 version have some dialogue removed entirely while others receive new dialogue.
