The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Well-known scholars review Mary Shelley's work in several contexts (literary history, aesthetic and literary culture, the legacies of her parents) and also analyze her most famous work— Frankenstein. The contributors also examine Shelley as a biographer, cultural critic, and travel writer. The text is supplemented by a chronology, guide to further reading and select filmography. 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. 'The Author of Frankenstein': -- Making a 'monster': an introduction to Frankenstein / Anne K. Mellor -- Frankenstein, Matilda, and the legacies of Godwin and Wollstonecraft / Pamela Clemit -- Frankenstein, feminism, and literary theory / Diane Long Hoeveler -- Frankenstein on Film / Esther Schor -- Frankenstein's futurity: from replicants to robotics / Jay Clayton -- Fictions and Myths: -- Valperga / Stuart Curran -- The last man / Kari E. Lokke -- Historical novelist / Deidre Lynch -- Falkner and other fictions / Kate Ferguson Ellis -- Stories for the Keepsake / Charlotte Sussman -- Proserpine and Midas / Judith Pascoe -- Professional Personae: -- Mary Shelley, editor / Susan J. Wolfson -- Letters: The public/private self / Betty T. Bennett -- Mary Shelley as biographer / Greg Kucich -- Mary Shelley's travel writing / Jeanne Moskal -- Mary Shelley as cultural critic / Timothy Morton In The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley, leading scholars discuss her work in several fascinating contexts: literary history, aesthetic and literary culture, the legacies of her parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and of course the life and afterlife of her most famous work, Frankenstein. Edited By Esther Schor. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 274-282) And Index. Includes Filmography: P. 283.