Shelley, Mary W. "Frankenstein" [Sever, Francis, & Co., 1869] 3rd American Edition

SHELLEY, Mary W. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

Boston and Cambridge: Sever, Francis, & Co., 1869. Third American edition. 7.25" x 5.25", 177pp + 2 ads. Publisher's original maroon cloth stamped in blind, title in gilt to front board. Binding rubbed and soiled, with fading to spine, wear to spine ends and corners, and staining to rear board. Small split to cloth at rear edge of spine. Gilt title remains legible. Front hinge secure, rear just barely starting at ends. Contemporary ownership notation to front free endpaper. Contents complete with light toning and occasional scattered foxing. Good+.

An early American edition of Mary Shelley’s foundational Gothic novel, preceded in the United States by the 1833 Carey, Lea & Blanchard edition and the 1845 H. G. Daggers edition. This Sever, Francis printing follows the 1831 revised text and includes Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 1818 preface together with Mary Shelley’s 1831 introduction.

First published anonymously in London in 1818, Frankenstein helped establish the modern science fiction novel while permanently shaping the literary tradition of Gothic horror. Blending scientific ambition, moral philosophy, and psychological terror, Shelley's enduring masterpiece remains one of the most influential and widely studied novels of the nineteenth century.