Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, 1818-2018

In February 2018 the editors of the present volume organised a two-day international conference in Venice to celebrate the bicentenary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, one of the most successful and haunting stories of all time. This publication grew out of that event, which was attended by panellists from Europe, the United States, Canada and Asia. The nineteen essays collected in this volume, which were originally presented at the Venice conference, have all been extensively revised, expanded, and updated. The book is divided into three parts and preceded by the editors’ introduction. While the first part turns primarily to the text itself, analysing its fictional techniques, the second and the third are concerned with placing the novel in a wider cultural context, exploring the numerous afterlives of the novel, its reception, and adaptations in different media, such as drama, cinema, graphic novels, television series, and computer games. In their various critical approaches, these essays aim to pay tribute to, and account for, the persistent hold that Mary Shelley’s masterpiece continues to exert on the imagination of readers, writers and artists in all fields of human creativity.