SHELLEY, Mary Wollstonecraft (1797-1851). Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1833.
2 volumes, 8vo in fours (203 x 127 mm). Half-titles, 4pp. publisher’s ads before half-title in vol. I, 23pp. publisher’s ads at end of vol. II. (Spotting throughout, small spot of dampstaining to title-page gutter in vol. II, affecting only the Dedication and Preface leaves). Original muslin-backed drab boards, printed paper spine labels, uncut (extremities sunned, some darkening to spines, labels gently worn, small split to front joint of vol. II near head). Provenance: Frances P. Watson (contemporary ownership signatures above titles, dated 1833).
RARE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF THE CORNERSTONE OF HORROR LITERATURE and the best-known fiction of the Romantic era. Shelley’s Frankenstein is the first work of science-fiction in English literature and “the first significant rendering of the relations between mankind and science through an image of mankind’s dual nature appropriate to an age of science” (Clute and Nicholls). The author’s name is misspelled “Shelly” on the title-page. AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY, complete and uncut in original boards. Lyles B6a.