Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus / The Ghost-Seer!
London: Richard Bentley, 1849.
The fourth reissue of the first illustrated edition of Frankenstein, with the long introduction by the Author. There were only three editions of Frankenstein authorized by the author: the first three-volume edition published anonymously in 1818 with a preface by Percy Bysshe Shelley; the second two-volume edition, 1823, which included her name and was overseen and slightly edited by her father, William Godwin; and this third edition in one volume with a preface by Shelley herself. This is the final Bentley edition, which was first published in 1831, and reissued in 1832, 1836, 1839, and 1849. Bound in publisher's brown cloth with decorative stamping in blind on boards and in gilt on spine, printed advertisement endpapers. In one volume as issued with the English translation of another Gothic classic, Schiller’s The Ghost-Seer. xii, 202, [2], 163, [1] pp., illustrated with engraved frontispiece by Theodor von Holst. Near Fine with light rubbing to extremities, and minor bumping to corners. Light foxing to textblock edges and contents, heavier at title and frontis. "Wrigglesworth's Library" written in old hand to first page of each novel, "Mary Shelley" written in pencil to Frankenstein title page for the benefit of those living under a rock. Lyles B10a.
A crisp unrestored copy of the fourth reissue of Bentley's 1831 revised Frankenstein, the basis for most of the future printings of the novel and the first to depict the Monster.
Price: $10,000