Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
EditionOriginal English text, revised edition of 1831
A young scientist gives life to a creature he cannot bear to look at, and the creature learns what that means.
Also in the library: the complete Korean translation.
Anyone can read the first chapter. Join free to read to the end and download EPUB and PDF.
DRM-free files. Translation CC BY-NC 4.0; the original work is in the public domain.
About the book
On a ship trapped in Arctic ice, the explorer Robert Walton takes aboard a dying man who tells him a story: how Victor Frankenstein, a student from Geneva, discovered the secret of life, made a living being, and fled from it the moment it opened its eyes. At the center of the novel the creature tells his own story, of loneliness, learning, and rejection, before the two of them begin a pursuit that ends at the top of the world.
This edition follows the revised text of 1831, with Mary Shelley’s Introduction on how the novel was born at Geneva in 1816 and the original Preface of 1818. It is the same text as our complete Korean translation, letter for letter and chapter for chapter. Spelling is kept as printed; quotation marks have been set in modern typography.
Highlights
- I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.
- Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
Contents
Anyone can read up to the first chapter. Chapters with a lock are open to free members.
Colophon
Original English text, revised edition of 1831. Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.Full colophon
Frankenstein · or, The Modern Prometheus
Author · Mary Shelley (1797–1851)
First publication · 1 January 1818, Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones, London, in three volumes, anonymously. Revised edition, with the author’s new Introduction: 1831, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, London (Standard Novels, No. IX).
Source text · A public-domain digital transcription of a photographic reprint of the revised edition of 1831.
Extent · Complete and unabridged · the author’s Introduction (1831) and the Preface (1818), four letters, twenty-four chapters, and Walton’s concluding letters · about 78,000 words
Copyright · The author died in 1851; the work is in the public domain worldwide.
This edition · The original English text, edited for Ether Library. The text itself is in the public domain. Ether Library’s editor’s note, this colophon, and the cover design are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Edition · English edition 1.0 · October 2026
Typography · Set in Lora (SIL Open Font License 1.1). Cover painting and design by Ether Library.
Text in the public domain · Front and back matter CC BY-NC 4.0
Ether Library · No. 0020