"Recognition of Mary Shelley's systemic dual focus on public and domestic power as the means to interrogate traditional norms and propose alternatives materially alters parochial perceptions of her objectives and her achievements. Her novels, outside of Frankenstein, and recently, The Last Man, have been dismissed as simple, mutual dissociated "romances" or experiments in genre solely to intersect with a market niche; they are neither. Rather, they and all of Mary Shelley's major works voice a cosmopolitan, socio-political reformist ideology that evolved as their author's acute awareness of world events enabled her to calibrate her literary voice to deal with unfolding rather than past societal issues. Her multidisciplinary fusion of literature, political philosophy, and history calls for a commensurate multidisciplinary reading in order to understand the complexities of both the author and her works." -- Betty T. BennettIn this book, Betty T. Bennett offers an extensively expanded version of the introduction she wrote for Pickering and Chatto's eight volume set, The Novels and Selected Works of Mary Shelley. Along with her insightful retelling of Mary Shelley's eventful life story, Bennett gives us a fresh reading of Frankenstein in the context of its author's full career. She also discusses a variety of Mary Shelley's lesser known works, including Matilda, Valperga, The Last Man, Perkin Warbeck, Lodore, Falkner, and her travel books. The result is a compelling portrait of Mary Shelley as she saw herself -- an inventive, irreverent writer whose desire for political and social reform was at the heart of her literary expression for three decades.

Product Description: These eight volumes contain the works of Mary Shelley and include introductions and prefatory notes to each volume. Included in this edition are "Frankenstein" (1818), "Matilda" ((1819), "Valperga" (1823), "The Last Man" (1826), "Perkin Warbeck" (1830) and "Lodore" (1835).

Product Description: These eight volumes contain the works of Mary Shelley and include introductions and prefatory notes to each volume. Included in this edition are "Frankenstein" (1818), "Matilda" ((1819), "Valperga" (1823), "The Last Man" (1826), "Perkin Warbeck" (1830) and "Lodore" (1835).

Product Description: This collection of essays focuses on Shelley's conception of the poet's social role and how that conception has changed over time. It examines the ways in which Shelley's thought engages contemporary debates on feminism, class structure, political representation and human rights, and how it in turn affects radical politics in England...read more

Product Description: The letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley reveal a remarkable woman living in a remarkable age. They date from October 1814--shortly after her elopement with Percy Bysshe Shelley--through September 1850, five months before her death...read more

Product Description: "By an investigative and analytical feat of true Sherlockian proportions, Bennett cracks an elaborate conspiracy that had successfully veiled a Pandora's box of sexual scandal and literary intrigue until Bennett herself revealed it to the world...read more

Product Description: Renewed interest in the life and works of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley has in recent years generated new biographical studies, complete editions of her letters and short stories, and fresh critical assessments of Frankenstein and her other fiction...read more

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