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The novel presents man's search and quest for the ultimate power and godhood. It is a narrative of man's interference into nature and the consequent destruction. It also delves into human psychology that rejects everything ugly. Written in the times of Industrial Revolution, the work also comments on the conditions of society and people.

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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An important back story on Ms. Wollstonecraft
This is the back story to Mary Wollstonecraft's life written by her second husband. It is important to understand her environment and upbringing to better understand her own work. A worthy companion to her work "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" ... Read more

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The Last Man Volume II. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

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Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was the first champion of women's rights in the modern Western world. Wollstonecraft's experience teaching young women in London led her to write her first book, in which she argued for equal education for girls and boys. The moderate success of her autobiographical novel Mary, A Fiction convinced her to start writing full-time. Under the tutelage of her publisher and mentor Joseph Johnson, she joined a circle of liberal intellectuals which included poet and artist William Blake, chemist Joseph Priestley, and political thinker William Godwin.
In 1790 Wollstonecraft penned A Vindication of the Rights of Men, an impassioned reply to conservative criticism of the French Revolution and a call for social equality. She developed her ideas further in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which extended the notion of natural rights to include women's rights as well. Going so far as to suggest that women should be allowed to vote, Wollstonecraft's revolutionary ideas garnered her overnight fame--and notoriety. She traveled to Paris, lived through the Reign of Terror, fell in love with an American, and gave birth to her first daughter. Though the love affair ended tragically, resulting in her thwarted suicide attempt, she happily wed William Godwin in 1797. That year she gave birth to her second child (the future author of Frankenstein Mary Shelley). She died a few days later from complications of childbirth.
Wollstonecraft's writing inspired leaders of the American woman suffrage movement, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and moved one admirer to call her a "pioneer of modern womanhood." ... Read more

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Nearly two hundred years ago, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote what is considered to be the first major work of feminist political theory:A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Much has been written about this work, and about Wollstonecraft as the intellectual pioneer of feminism, but the actual substance and coherence of her political thought have been virtually ignored.Virginia Sapiro here provides the first full-length treatment of Wollstonecraft's political theory.

Drawing on all of Wollstonecraft's works and treating them thematically rather than sequentially, Sapiro shows that Wollstonecraft's ideas about women's rights, feminism, and gender are elements of a broad and fully developed philosophy, one with significant implications for contemporary democratic and liberal theory.The issues raised speak to many current debates in theory, including those surrounding interpretation of the history of feminism, the relationship between liberalism and republicanism in the development of political philosophy, and the debate over the canon.For political scientists, most of whom know little about Wollstonecraft's thought, Sapiro's book is an excellent, nuanced introduction which will cause a reconsideration of her work and her significance both for her time and for today's concerns.For feminist scholars, Sapiro's book offers a rounded and unconventional analysis of Wollstonecraft's thought.

Written with considerable charm and verve, this book will be the starting point for understanding this important writer for years to come. ... Read more

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About This Edition
This review is about the Heritage Press edition of Frankenstein, illustrated by Everett Henry.

The first version of this book with the Henry illustrations was published in 1934, in a run of 1500 copies. Now rather pricey, it was and remains one of the Limited Editions Club's most desirable books.

At some point, but at least by 1962, Heritage press decided to repackage the book. It is lavender. A pretty, pastel lavender on linen-finished cloth interwoven with white. Decorative pigment leaf elements designed by Henry appear on the cover and spine in an odd, saturated violet (including a creepy hand, and a building.)

Responding to color is a personal thing. At first, I found it bizarre that this great gothic tale would be lavender. Now I wouldn't want it any other way.

In a midnight blue, lightly-textured slipcase. 257 pp with over 5 full page color illustrations, illustrations at the chapter headings, and black and white incidental illustrations scattered through the text.

Introduction by Edmund Pearson.

Gothic at its best
Mary Shelley was the daughter of the famous feminist and author, Mary Wollstonecraft, who is best known for her work The Vindication of the Rights of Women.In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a young university student, Victor Frankenstein, obsesses with wanting to know the secret to life.He studies chemistry and natural philosophy with the goal of being able to create a human out of spare body parts.After months of constant work in his laboratory, Frankenstein attains his goal and brings his creation to life.Frankenstein is immediately overwrought by fear and remorse at the sight of his creation, a "monster."The next morning, he decides to destroy his creation but finds that the monster has escaped.The monster, unlike other humans, has no social preparation or education; thus, it is unequipped to take care of itself either physically or emotionally.The monster lives in the forest like an animal without knowledge of "self" or understanding of its surroundings.The monster happens upon a hut inhabited by a poor family and is able to find shelter in a shed adjacent to the hut.For several months, the monster starts to gain knowledge of human life by observing the daily life of the hut's inhabitants through a crack in the wall.The monster's education of language and letters begins when he listens to one of them learning the French language.During this period, the monster also learns of human society and comes to the realization that he is grotesque and alone in the world.Armed with his newfound ability to read, he reads three books that he found in a leather satchel in the woods.Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, Milton's Paradise Lost, and a volume of Plutarch's Lives.The monster, not knowing any better, read these books thinking them to be facts about human history.From Plutarch's works, he learns of humankind's virtues.However, it is Paradise Lost that has a most interesting effect on the monster's understanding of self.The monster at first identifies with Adam, "I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence."The monster, armed only with his limited education, thought that he would introduce himself to the cottagers and depend on their virtue and benevolence; traits he believed from his readings that all humans possessed.However, soon after his first encounter with the cottagers, he is beaten and chased off because his ugliness frightens people.The monster is overwrought by a feeling of perplexity by this reaction, since he thought he would gain their trust and love, which he observed them generously give to each other on so many occasions.He receives further confirmation of how his ugliness repels people when, sometime later, he saves a young girl from drowning and the girl's father shoots at him because he is frightful to look at.The monster quickly realizes that the books really lied to him.He found no benevolence or virtue among humans, even from his creator.At every turn in his life, humans are judging him solely based on his looks.The monster soon realizes that it is not Adam, the perfect being enjoying the world, which he is most alike.Instead, he comes to realize that he most represents Satan.The monster is jealous of the happiness he sees humans enjoy that he has never attained for himself.The monster tells Frankenstein that he found his lab journal in his coat pocket and read it with increasing hate and despair as he came to understand what Frankenstein's intent was in creating him.The monster curses Frankenstein for making a creature so hideous that even his creator turned from him in disgust.

Shelley's intent here is plain to see."The fate of the monster suggests that proficiency in `the art of language' as he calls it, may not ensure one's position as a member of the `human kingdom."In a sense, she is showing that both her parents were mistaken when they advocated greater education reform for people.They thought education would make people better, which in turn would improve society for all.Mary Shelley's Frankenstein contradicts this belief.

Starting with the full title of Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus one can instantly see that mythology was integral to her book.Lord Byron, poet and friend of the Shelley's was writing a poem entitled Prometheus, and Mary was reading the Prometheus legend in Aeschylus' works when she had a dream, which was the impetus for her book.The Greek god Prometheus, is known for two important tasks that he performed, he created man from clay, and he stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.The stealing of fire really angered Zeus because the giving of fire began an era of enlightenment for humankind.Zeus punished Prometheus by having him carried to a mountain, where an eagle would pick at his liver; it would grow back each day and the eagle would eat it again.

The presence of fire and light in this gothic story helps to point to the similarities to Prometheus and Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, in Shelley's book.The book uses light as a symbol of discovery, knowledge, and enlightenment.The natural world is full of hidden passages, and dark unknown scientific secrets; Victor's goal as a scientist is to grasp towards the light.Light is a by-product of fire that the monster learned quickly when he is living on his own.The monster experienced fires' duality when he first encountered it in an unattended fire in the woods.He is mesmerized by the fact that fire produces light in the darkness in the woods, but is shocked at the sensation of pain it gives him when he touches it.Victor is defiant of god in the same way that Prometheus was defiant of Zeus.Victor steals the secret of life from god and creates a human out of spare body parts.He does this out of an altruistic wish to spare humankind from the pain and suffering of death.Thus, Victor Frankenstein embodies both aspects of the Promethean myth creation and fire.Victor in a sense has the same experience with the fire of enlightenment similar to his monster; he is "burned" by the fire of enlightenment.Victor also suffers from the classic Greek tragic condition of hubris for his transgression against god and nature.

The book also adopts two other great mythic legends.One is Adam from the Bible.Victor Frankenstein bears striking resemblance to Adam and his fall from grace for eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.The other is Satan, a mythic figure that Shelley admired from her readings in Milton's book Paradise Lost.In an interesting juxtaposition of booth myths, she expands on the motif of the fall from grace in her book when she portrays the monster comparing himself to Adam; after he read, Milton's book Paradise Lost.The monster tells Victor, that he at first identifies with Adam God's first creation."I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence."However, after several incidents of mistreatment that he suffered from the humans he encountered in his travels; the monster soon realized that it is not Adam, the perfect being enjoying the world, which he was most alike.Instead, he came to realize that he most represented Satan.The monster's feelings of hatred and despair stem from the fact that humans found him grotesque to look at and would not accept him as a member of human society.The monster cursed Victor for making a creature so hideous that even his creator turned from him in disgust.Thus, it is obvious for all to see that Shelley's Frankenstein is replete with mythological references and they are central to the plot.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.


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The letters of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin mirror the relationship of a remarkable literary couple. The correspondence collected here covers the period from July 13, 1796, to August 30, 1797, when 'their friendship turned to romance, their romance to passion, their passion to consummation, their affair to a highly unconventional marriage during which they lived far enough apart to permit the continuing exchange of letters. Wardle, a superb editor, provides just enough annotation to allow the relationship to unfold by itself through the correspondence of these two doctrinaire rationalists, who both came late to love...[Godwin & Mary] is the easiest, certainly the most delightful introduction to the life and prose of Mary Wollstonecraft' - Ellen Moers, "New York Review of Books".'Taken together, these letters help us to trace out the personal and domestic relations of Mary and Godwin at first hand, and they also throw a good deal of light on the contrasting characters of the pair. Professor Wardle's annotations are most helpful; always brief and concise, but never superfluous' - "English Studies". Ralph M.Wardle is the author of "Oliver Goldsmith" (1957), "Mary Wollstonecraft: A Critical Biography" (1951) and "Halzlitt" (1971). ... Read more

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This edition, the third in our Lives of the Great Romantics series, sheds light on contemporary perceptions of the most biographically and intellectually compelling literary family of the Romantic period.The collected writings reveal not only the personalities of the subjects, but also the motives and agendas of the individual biographers. In volume 1, the memoirs depict the character of the philosopher and novelist William Godwin as inseparable from the character of his work. In volume 2, a fascinating picture of the vicissitudes of Wollstonecraft's reputation throughout the nineteenth century is displayed. Shortly after her death she is vilified and abused by commentators, but gradually a new 'sanitised' image emerges, her `coarseness' is overlooked, and the emphasis shifts to her gentleness and sensitivity, combined with strength of mind.Both volumes 1 and 2 include extracts from Mary Shelley's previously unpublished 'Life of William Godwin' in the Abinger Collection, transcribed specially for this edition.Due to Sir Timothy's prohibition that Mary Shelley bring the Shelley name to public attention, and because the growing conservatism of the era often caused Mary Shelley to be shunned by 'good society', little was written of her during her life time.Many of the later passages in this collection, however, reveal truths about Mary Shelley's character and work much known but never previously written about. ... Read more

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From reviews published in the 1790s to present-day scholarship, the writings collected here enable students and researchers to examine the works, reputation, and continuing influence of the woman often described as the "mother of feminism." ... Read more

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Best remembered today as a novelist and political philosopher, Mary Wollstonecraft continues to challenge her present-day readers, as she did Virginia Woolf. Of all her writing the masterpiece is perhaps her last completed work, the epistolary travel narrative entitled Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. It was published in 1796 following a journey to Scandinavia the previous year. Interest in this fascinating text has greatly increased in recent years, reflecting a growing critical attention to travel writing as a whole as well as recognition of the Letters literary qualities and historical importance. The Letters provides a powerful account of a journey to what was at the time an exotic outpost of European civilization. But it can also be read as an elegiac meditation on disillusion and lost love. Its twenty-five letters are addressed to an un identified male friend, actually Wollstonecraft's American lover Gilbert Imlay, who had deserted her.

Apart from the pathos of the narrative framework, the Letters is a key text for the study of the development of literary Romanticism. According to the editors of Wollstonecraft's Collected Works, Marilyn Butler and Janet Todd, it "moved and haunted the leading men writers of her generation, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Hazlit and Godwin, and several of the women too - Seward, Hays and Alderson"(Works 1:21). It is also one of the few prose works by women now incorporated into the Romantic canon. For Scandinavians it has added significance due to the insight it provides into the social life of the Nordic countries at the end of the eighteenth century. Because it is richly involved with the intellectual and philosophical context to which it responds, it develops and deepens the political analyses of Wollstonecraft's early works. ... Read more

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During the last four decades women’s and gender history have become vibrant fields including studies of attitudes regarding the limited physical and other abilities of females as well as studies of the accomplishments of notable female athletes. We have become increasingly aware that women have made contributions to physical education, dance and sport that go far beyond being teachers, athletes and coaches. They have created and implemented an astonishing variety of programs intended to serve the needs of large numbers of children and youth sometimes organizing student health services, as well as chairing departments of physical education. They have worked as directors of sport, physical education and dance, running playgrounds and recreational facilities and have created and/or served as important officers of a variety of sporting organizations.

This book explores the contributions and achievements of women in a variety of historical and geographical contexts which, not surprisingly opens opportunities for additions, revisions and counter-narratives to accepted histories of physical education and sport science. It seeks to broaden our understandings about the backgrounds, motivations and achievements of dedicated women working to improve health and bodily practices in a variety of different arenas and for often different purposes.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

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A richly detailed, powerful biography of the first major feminist in England, highlighting her intellectual and sexual dilemmas, her glamorous and tumultuous life and loves. The combination of her works with her efforts to live a revolutionary inner and outer life has no equal. ... Read more