Frankenstein (Longman Cultural Editions) [Paperback]

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Author), Susan J. Wolfson (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321399536 | ISBN-13: 978-0321399533 | Publication Date: July 10, 2006 | Edition: 2nd

From the Longman Cultural Editions series, this second edition of Frankenstein presents Mary Shelley's remarkable novel in several provocative and illuminating contexts: cultural, critical, and literary.   

 

Series Editor Susan J. Wolfson presents the 1818 version of Mary Shelley's famous novel in its cultural and historical contexts. Like all great works of fiction, Frankenstein gains depth and dimension from its "conversation" with contemporary texts, especially those by Shelley's own parents, husband, and friends.  A lively introduction is complemented by a chronology coordinating Shelley's life with key historical events and a speculative calendar of the novel's events in the late eighteenth century.  In addition to the 1818 text, this cultural edition features the introduction to and a sample revision of the 1831 version.  New to this Edition is Frankentalk, a section of selected references to Frankenstein in the popular press, and the complete text of Richard Brinsley Peake’s Frankenstein, A Romantic Drama, the first stage version of Frankenstein.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan J. Wolfson is professor of English at Princeton University. In addition to this present volume, her editorial work includes  Felicia Hemans (Princeton UP, 2000) and the Longman Cultural Edition of John Keats.  With Claudia Johnson, she is coeditor of the Longman Cultural Edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. With Peter Manning, she is coeditor of the Romantics volume in The Longman Anthology of British Literature, and Selected Poems of Lord Byron (Penguin, 2005).  Her critical books include the prize-winning Formal Charges: The Shaping of Poetry in British Romanticism (Stanford UP, 1997) and Borderlines: The Shiftings of Gender in British Romanticism (Stanford UP, 2007).

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Longman; 2nd edition (July 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321399536
• ISBN-13: 978-0321399533
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Frankenstein, November 10, 2009

By 

Ivan Joy D'book "CD" (Waverly, IA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Frankenstein (Longman Cultural Editions) (Paperback)

Book in great condition. Different edition or cover of book received then shown for sale. Disappointed with that. Unsure if correct book. Son needed it for college so went to school bookstore to purchase correct edition.:(

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great novel, good editing, terrible typography, May 1, 2007

By 

John Lauritsen (Dorchester, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frankenstein (Longman Cultural Editions) (Paperback)

Frankenstein is a great work, though one that has consistently been underrated and misrepresented. Frankenstein is, in the words of Donald H. Reiman, "the most seminal literary work of the Romantic period". In my opinion, it is a work of profound and radical ideas, written in poetically powerful prose. Frankenstein is not really a gothic novel, although its author sometimes employs gothic conventions and language, and even spoofs them. Rather, Frankenstein is an enduring myth, a novel of ideas, and above all, a moral allegory about the evil effects of intolerance and prejudice, ostracism and alienation, both to the victims of intolerance and to society at large.
I'll concentrate on thisparticular edition -- the Longman edition edited by Susan J. Wolfson. Most importantly, this is the original 1818 edition, rather than the inferior, bowdlerized 1831 edition -- which is the most common, and the only one that was available for well over a century. Unfortunately, this edition can not be recommended owing to the typeface, Bodoni, which makes the text hard to read and makes it difficult to concentrate. Bodoni can sometimes be effective as a display typeface, but it is never appropriate for extended text. This is too bad, as there is some good material in the back. The best editions of the 1818 text are those edited by James Rieger (Chicago) or by J. Paul Hunter (Norton).
Please check out my own book, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, which makes the case that Frankenstein was really written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the greatest poets in the English language. I also argue that male love, both idealized and demonized, is a central theme of Frankenstein.
Five stars for Frankenstein, three stars for this edition.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Never came, October 18, 2009

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Segundo E. Espin "Raphael" (New jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Frankenstein (Longman Cultural Editions) (Paperback)

Ok so I order 2 books.. One of them arrived in time. The other book never arrived at all.. I'm already halfway till I finish with my courses and I still don't have the book.. The book is not even expensive it's "Frankenstein", such a common book.