This chilling tale of a gruesome monster unleashed into the world by an unthinking scientist was first conceived in 1818 by nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley on a dark, rainy night on Lake Geneva. Lord Byron and Percy Shelley challenged their friends to see who could come up with the most horrifying story imaginable. Mary Shelley did, terrifying them all with her nightmare-inspired tale.

Brilliantly narrated by British actor Clive Hayward, this 200th anniversary audio edition of Frankenstein is followed by The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge which had a haunting influence on young Mary Shelley many years before the story of Frankenstein entered her dreams. With commentary on Shelley s feminist roots by Alison Larkin.