Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus
£3,780
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 8 February 2023 at 10:00 GMT
Description
Revised, corrected, and illustrated with a new introduction by the author. [Bound with as issued:] The Ghost-Seer! From the German of Schiller. In two volumes. Vol. I. London: Richard Bentley, 1839. 2 parts in 1 volume, 8vo (16.2 x 9.5cm), later quarter sheep, pp. [iii]-xii 202, [5] 4-163 pp., engraved frontispiece dated 1831 showing Frankenstein and his monster, half-title to Schiller, without the letterpress series-title, engraved vignette title-page, or advertisement leaf found in the 1831 edition (see note), frontispiece with attempted tissue-repair to short closed tear at head of gutter, light finger-soiling and a few marginal nicks, title-page also slightly finger-soiled and with faint institutional blindstamps (New University Club) [cf. Sadleir 3734a.9]
Footnote
Note:
First Bentley edition, later issue. Frankenstein was first published in 1818, with a second edition appearing in 1823. Bentley's edition, published in 1831 and incorporating extensive revisions by the author, was the third overall, the first illustrated edition, and the first edition in one volume. Copies are also noted with title-pages dated 1832 and 1836; this 1839 issue is usually described as the fourth. The engraved vignette title-page, not present here, is absent in other copies of the 1839 printing we have noted; it has not been established whether or not a letterpress series-title and advertisement leaf are also called for.
Provenance: William St Clair FBA FRSL (1937-2021), British historian, with his ownership inscription.