Illustrated edition · Part One · free to read

Frankenstein

by Mary Shelley1818

A gifted boy, a book of forbidden alchemy, and the lightning strike that sets his course.

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25 drawn pages · dialogue straight from the original text

Frankenstein, illustrated page 1: I am by birth a Genevese; and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 2: One of his most intimate friends was a merchant,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 3: In the mean time he hoped to procure some respectable employment in a merchant's house.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 4: After the interment of his friend, he conducted her to Geneva.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 5: I, their eldest child, was born at Naples, and as an infant accompanied them in their rambles.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 6: When my father returned from Milan,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 7: We were brought up together; there was not quite a year difference in our ages.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 8: Childhood.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 9: Meanwhile Clerval occupied himself, so to speak, with the moral relations of things.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 10: When I was thirteen years of age, we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon:

Frankenstein, illustrated page 11: My father looked carelessly at the titlepage of my book, and said,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 12: When I returned home, my first care was to procure the whole works of this author,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 13: Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt like a child picking up shells

Frankenstein, illustrated page 14: When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 15: this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 16: By one of those caprices of the mind, which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 17: When I look back, it seems to me as if this almost miraculous change of inclination and will

Frankenstein, illustrated page 18: When I had attained the age of seventeen,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 19: Her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper,—Elizabeth was saved,

Frankenstein, illustrated page 20: I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil;

Frankenstein, illustrated page 21: My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform;

Frankenstein, illustrated page 22: At length the high white steeple of the town met my eyes.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 23: He was an uncouth man, but deeply embued in the secrets of his science.

Frankenstein, illustrated page 24: I returned home, not disappointed, for I have said that I had long considered those authors

Frankenstein, illustrated page 25: Partly from curiosity, and partly from idleness,

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About Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus is a work that straddles science‑fiction, horror, and gothic fiction, foregrounding the uneasy marriage of scientific ambition and monstrous creation. The opening pages begin not with the famous creature’s first steps but with a reflective authorial preface that situates the novel’s origin in a summer of rainy Swiss evenings, a literary circle that included Lord Byron, and a challenge to write a ghost story that would “curdle the blood.” Shelley recounts how a vivid, night‑time vision of a “pale student of unhallowed arts” and his half‑animated creation sparked the narrative that would follow. This framing situates the tale within the era’s fascination with galvanism and speculative physiology, promising a story that uses a speculative scientific premise to explore deeper human passions.

The prose is unmistakably early‑19th‑century, marked by elaborate, lyrical sentences that echo the Romantic poets while maintaining a clear, narrative drive. Shelley’s voice is both intimate, she shares personal recollections of childhood imagination and literary salons, and philosophically probing, inviting readers to contemplate the consequences of “mock[ing] the stupendous mechanism of the Creator.” Readers who enjoy richly atmospheric gothic settings, thoughtful examinations of scientific hubris, and the psychological depth of a creator confronting his own invention will find this novel compelling.

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