Information about the author Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in 1797, the daughter of two prominent radical writers. Her mother died just days after her birth, and Mary was educated at home by her father and encouraged in her literary pursuits. She eloped with the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and eventually married him, but their life together was fraught with difficulties. The couple was ruined by disapproving parents, and Mary lost three of her four children. Although the subject matter was extremely grim, her first novel, Frankenstein (1818), became an immediate sensation. Subsequent works like Mathilda (1819) and The Last Man (1826) were less successful but are finally receiving the critical recognition they deserve. Blurb: Frankenstein is Mary Shelley's most famous novel, a dark parable about abused science. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant yet headstrong scientist, creates a human being from dead flesh.