Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1931 Film Cover)

Exactly one hundred years after the most popular version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published, the film Frankenstein (1931) was released – and a film tie-in of the classic gothic novel was produced.

Thought up in the stormy landscape of Geneva in 1816, after sharing ghost stories with fellow writers Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, Frankenstein was published two years later by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones (but our copy was published by The Reader’s Library Publishing Company). The original 1818 story was published in three volumes, but it was edited by Mary Shelley in later years, and in 1831 an amended version was published: this is the copy that readers know and love today. One hundred years later in 1931 (after other adaptations and dramatizations) Universal released a filmic version of Shelley’s narrative.

This copy makes emphasis upon the fact that story in this book is exactly as Shelley wrote it – perhaps noting to film-fans that this is Frankenstein as it was before the cultural zeitgeist that synonymised the name ‘Frankenstein’ with the electrified creature that features on the front of this edition’s dust jacket.

Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster graces the cover of this unique copy of Frankenstein, with the title page mentioning other actors Colin Clive, Frederick Kerr, and Mae Clarke that also star in the 1931 film. This dust jacket is a rare feature for a copy of Frankenstein and is scarce on the market.

The title page also draws attention to the lesser known secondary title of Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus (with Prometheus being the rebellious Titan from Ancient Greek mythology who gave fire to humans). The editor of this edition comments on the relationship between unemployment and industrial development, linking man’s progress and its social issues; the editor’s note of this copy, and its dust jacket, grounds the supplementary features of this book in the early 1930s, yet the core story remains the timeless classic that literature-lovers have been reading for over two-hundred years. It is being sold for £600.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, or would like more information of other items we sell, then please get in contact by emailing us at sales@mainlybooks.co.uk, or come visit us in store in Eton! Please refer to our Contact Us page for more information on how to reach us.