Frankenstein & Mary Shelley Books 2018

With the 200th Anniversary year upon us, a number of new books and takes on the Frankenstein story and Mary Shelley biographies have made their appearance, from indie publishers, self-publishing and mainstream.

There are a whole variety of stage productions at theaters large and small, from stagings of the original story adaptations to the more fanciful, including the puppet show version. The “Mary Shelley” movie should make an appearance in theaters in 2018 and Universal Cable Productions has announced a new untitled TV series project from Adam Simon and Robert Masello in which Mary Shelley is to play a part along with other 19th Century authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker and H.G. Wells, in a reimagined “secret society of authors” monsterfest set in Victorian England. Mrs. Shelley has already appeared in the “Frankenstein Chronicles”, the London murder series, going into its second season.

Here is a list of some of the books recently released or soon to come.

Monster: The Early Life of Mary Shelley – by Mark Arnold

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley with and introductions – by Charlotte Gordon

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley – by Charlotte Gordon

Daughter of Earth and Water: Biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley – by Noel Gerson

The Complete Frankenstein: 200 Year Edition: 1818 and 1831 Versions

In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein – By Fiona Sampson

Mary’s Monster: Live, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein – by Lita Judge

Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child: Political Philosophy in “Frankenstein” – by Eileen Hunt Bonning

Mary Shelley: The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein’s Creator – by Catherine Reef

Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds – by Mary Shelley and David H. Guston

The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein – by Antoinette May

Mary, Who Wrote Frankenstein – by Linda Baily (Author) Julia Sarda (Illustrator) A Picture Book!

Son of Terror: Frankenstein Continued, A Sequel – by William A Chanler

And of course…

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein Diaries – Paperback

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein Diaries – Audiobook

200th Shelley Anniversary Film Fest at Wellesley College

In the past few years, mashups—like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, currently gobbling theaters—have meant classic works have undergone radical pop transformations at the hands of Hollywood. Wellesley College in Massachusetts is taking a decidedly more unique approach in its celluloid celebration of the 200th anniversary of one classic text, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. For the prestigious all-women’s college, Shelley embodies an artist who, despite a literary world hostile to women writers, produced one of our most enduring stories, one that continues to be re-interpreted by every generation.

The College’s popular movie series, Cinephile Sundays, is honoring Shelley herself, and by extension the iconic horror story of science gone awry, by screening several films on campus. Some films allude to Shelley’s life; others reflect on, in often invitingly oblique ways, her famous monster and the issues brought up by her novel. The films being screened are stitched together under a theme of “Exquisite Combinations,” bringing to life the ways Shelley and her work have gone on to inspire filmmakers. In this series of five very different films, Shelley’s Gothic 19th-century literary vision plays out in a 20th-century artform, creating new conversations and foregrounding the long shadow of her influence and life.

One of the most iconic offerings is a screening of the silent film Metropolis, on Sunday, Feb. 28th, accompanied by a rare live musical soundtrack. Not specifically taken from Frankenstein, but clearly inspired by it. This triumph of Weimar Germany filmmaking is about Maria, an artificial woman created in the lab in Metropolis, with music for the silent film performed by Alloy Orchestra.

The first film in the series is perhaps the most explicit in its connection to Shelley’s story. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) screens Sunday, Feb. 14. It is the sequel to the 1931 hit Frankenstein. It is widely seen as director James Whale’s masterpiece and is viewed as an icon in the genre of classic horror, delving closer to the themes of the actually novel than the original, with a cinematic appearance by Shelley herself, with Elsa Lancaster in dual roles.

The remaining films reflect widely different styles, take place around the globe, and have very different connections to Shelley and her work. The films include one on the persistent theme of man and machine (Paprika), another about the haunting effect the film Frankenstein has a little girl (El espiratu de la colmena), and lastly a film featuring another woman pioneer, Ada Lovelace, who calculated the first computer algorithm (Conceiving Ada). All films are screened in Wellesley’s Collins Cinema. Times and Dates.