Places Mary Shelley’s revolutionary novel in its political, philosophical and literary context. Frankenstein is one of the most popular novels from the Romantic period. This accessible study, written by a specialist in Romantic literature, examines Frankenstein within its literary and philosophical contexts. It looks closely at the range of genres from which the novel emerged, offering textual analysis of key passages from this and related texts. There is a summary of criticism on the novel, a discussion of the historical background, and a wide-ranging exploration of the literary sources. The study focuses on the moral questions that arise from the novel, investigating the range of questions that Shelley raises and offering an analysis of her answers. Essaka Joshua teaches at the University of Notre Dame. She has published several articles on Romantic and Victorian literature, including studies of Mary Shelley, William Wordsworth, Thomas Lovell Beddoes, and Charlotte Brontë. Dr Joshua is the author of Pygmalion and Galatea: The History of a Narrative in English Literature (Ashgate, 2001), and a textbook on The Remains of the Day (First and Best, 2004) and The Romantics and the May Day Tradition (Ashgate, 2007).
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