Shelley

1823 · réf. 194288 — London: printed for G. & W. B. Whittaker 1823. Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil Second edition being the rarest edition published during the author's lifetime. It is also the first British edition to name Mary Shelley as the author. Reviewers such as Sir Walter Scott had misattributed the anonymous 1818 first edition to Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary Shelley was publicly acknowledged as the author of Frankenstein in the papers the following year and in the 1821 French edition as "Mme. Shelly" sic. Demand for a second edition grew following the resounding success of the stage adaptation Presumption or The Fate of Frankenstein 1823. As Shelley was on the continent her father William Godwin saw to the second edition and incorporated his own revisions which Shelley accepted and used as the basis for her revised 1831 third edition. 2 vols bound in 1 duodecimo 164 x 92 mm. Bound without half-titles vol. I bound without publisher's final blank. Contemporary half calf spine label marbled sides corners and endpapers all renewed compartments patterned in blind raised bands with gilt rules connecting floral device blind roll to sides edges sprinkled red. Early ink annotation on title page following printed statement vol. I "and 2 in one"; later pencilled ownership inscription of one M. B. Ryan on page 1. Light rubbing and a few marks to leather spine inner hinges repaired paper restoration to fore margins of title page and early leaves a couple of further repairs including to slight paper flaw touching colophon small loss to upper outer corners of vol. II pp. 189-92 a few marginal splash marks. Overall a very good copy. hardcover