The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley

In The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley, leading scholars discuss her work in several fascinating contexts.

Esther Schor (Edited by)

9780521809849, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 November 2003

316 pages, 14 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.628 kg

'There is much here to stimulate students, but those reading Shelley for the first time should also be pointed towards the alternative critical and biographical traditions …' BARS Bulletin & Review

Known from her day to ours as 'the Author of Frankenstein', Mary Shelley indeed created one of the central myths of modernity. But she went on to survive all manner of upheaval - personal, political, and professional - and to produce an oeuvre of bracing intelligence and wide cultural sweep. The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley helps readers to assess for themselves her remarkable body of work. In clear, accessible essays, a distinguished group of scholars place Shelley's works in several historical and aesthetic contexts: literary history, the legacies of her parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and of course the life and afterlife, in cinema, robotics and hypertext, of Frankenstein. Other topics covered include Mary Shelley as a biographer and cultural critic, as the first editor of Percy Shelley's works, and as travel writer. This invaluable volume is complemented by a chronology, a guide to further reading and a select filmography.

Chronology
Preface
Part I. 'The Author of Frankenstein': 1. Making a 'monster': an introduction to Frankenstein Anne K. Mellor
2. Frankenstein, Matilda, and the legacies of Godwin and Wollstonecraft Pamela Clemit
3. Frankenstein, feminism, and literary theory Diane Long Hoeveler
4. Frankenstein on Film Esther Schor
5. Frankenstein's futurity: from replicants to robotics Jay Clayton
Part II. Fictions and Myths: 6. Valperga Stuart Curran
7. The last man Kari E. Lokke
8. Historical novelist Deidre Lynch
9. Falkner and other fictions Kate Ferguson Ellis
10. Stories for the Keepsake Charlotte Sussman
11. Proserpine and Midas Judith Pascoe
Part III. Professional Personae: 12. Mary Shelley, editor Susan J. Wolfson
13. Letters: the public/private self Betty T. Bennett
14. Mary Shelley as biographer Greg Kucich
15. Mary Shelley's travel writing Jeanne Moskal
16. Mary Shelley as cultural critic Timothy Morton
Further reading
Selected filmography.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]