Frankenstein Returns (review of "Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. Annotated for Scientiest, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds") [Book Reviews]

In 2018, much attention was paid to the 200th anniversary of the publication of one of the most popular novels in the English language, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Her achievement is the more remarkable in that it occurred when there were very few known English female authors. Indeed, when the book appeared it carried no author’s name. Popular from the start, it went through several editions and revisions — the writer was revealed to the public in the second edition. She was the wife of the renowned poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and had started writing the book at age 18; it came out two years later. It’s interesting that the first major science fiction novel was written by a woman and perhaps significant that it presents a dark vision of scientific experimentation. That M.I.T. has chosen to bring out a new heavily annotated edition at this moment in history is both appropriate and not surprising. We are in an age of hyper-sensitivity to issues of technological hubris as well as fear of the unintended consequences of technology. Who hasn’t heard of “Frankenfood” — genetically modified nourishment, which in our more paranoid moments, we imagine having been created by mad scientists in industrial laboratories who are poisoning our bodies and environment. And our present concern over the possibility of “designer babies” has close parallels in the novel’s plot. Virtually every other page of this edition carries footnotes, which were provided by a team of around 30 professors, grad students, sci-fi writers, and post docs. In addition, the book concludes with seven critical essays — some of them quite provocative — which will be an aid to any professor who chooses to assign this book designed for classroom study by undergraduates in STEM courses. Strange to say, despite its publisher and subject matter none of the contributors is from M.I.T. The three principal editors are at Arizona State University. There are now several other 200th anniversary editions in print, including one from Literary Folio that includes facsimiles of the 1818 and 1831 editions.