Which edition of ‘Frankenstein’ is better?
Why I think the scholarly consensus is wrong.
Frankenstein was first published anonymously in 1818, and then republished under Mary Shelley’s name in 1831, with a number of changes to the text, and an added introduction, in which Mary gives some background about how she came to write the novel. Which edition is better? Personally, I think the 1831 edition is better, but the scholarly consensus is that the 1818 edition is.
In the new introduction and the changes that Mary Shelley made to the text, I think we can see a movement on Mary Shelley’s part to heighten important tensions in the text, including those involving the simultaneous innocence and guilt of both Victor Frankenstein and the being he creates. I agree with James O’Rourke’s assessment that Mary Shelley’s introduction to the 1831 edition and the changes she made to that edition accomplish a re-framing and fine-tuning of the novel to make it a more powerful and compelling expression of the themes and ideas that Mary Shelley wished to convey.[1] This view, however, does not appear to accord with the current scholarly consensus.
Since the 1990s there has been a growing trend among certain prominent literary theorists, particularly those whose interest centers on a feminist interpretation of Frankenstein, of regarding the 1818 edition…