Mary Shelley’s Forbidden Dreams (Illustrated)

You probably know about Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley writing Frankenstein following a night of ghost stories in a seaside mansion in Switzerland. The 18-year-old wife-to-be of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley said the idea came to her in a dream. But did you know she wrote a number of other dream-like novels, short stories, and plays. Here you will find a unique sampling: a little-known science-fiction novel called The Last Man; two plays, Proserpine and Midas; and an excerpt from her personal journal, explaining how she came to write Frankenstein. Plus there’s a complete Bibliography and nearly 60 illustrations in the accompanying Portfolio.

Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, whose gothic style and progressive ideas have had a permanent influence on literary history. Daughter of political philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley quickly developed ideas about female independence, sexual freedom, and how to compromise in the face of nineteenth century English convention.