SHELLEY, Mary Wollstonecraft (1797-1851). Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831.

SHELLEY, Mary Wollstonecraft (1797-1851). Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831.

8o. Engraved additional title and frontispiece. (Some minor foxing on endpages.) 19th-century half calf (rebacked preserving original spine); quarter morocco folding case with onlaid cloth design depicting the monster as played by Karloff.

Third edition, revised, corrected, and with a new introduction by the author. This edition contains the first illustration of the monster (frontispiece) as well as the first appearance of the author's introduction, which is the first published explanantion of her creation of the fictional Frankenstein while in Switzerland in the summer of 1816. "I will add but one word as to the alterations I have made. They are principally those of style. I have changed no portion of the story, nor introduced any new ideas or circumstances. I have mended language where it was so bald as to interfere with the interest of the narrative..." (Introduction). Lyles B4a.