Frankenstein (1818 vs 1832 Text): Which Monster is Better?

For years, I was teaching the wrong Frankenstein. I didn't know it at the time. I was a young, eager graduate student, standing in front of a classroom for the first time, and I had ordered the cheapest copy of Mary Shelley's masterpiece I could find. We read the book, discussed it, and I felt a vague uneasiness. The monster seemed too monstrous, too simply evil, and Victor Frankenstein seemed too easily forgiven. The femile characters were passive and powerless. It didn't feel like the radical text I had heard so much about. Then a senior colleague asked me, which version I was using. I had no idea what she was talking about. I was holding the 1832 revised version, and I had never read the original 1818 text. It was a humiliating moment, but it transformed my understanding of the novel forever. Today, I've devoted my career to helping readers understand this crucial difference, and I can finally tell you which monster belongs on your shelf.

Here's the story behind the two texts. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she was just 18 years old, and it was published anonymously in 1818. This original text is raw, furious, and radical. The creature is not just a monster; he is a voice for the oppressed, and his demands for justice are powerful and uncomfortable. The female characters, especially Elizabeth, are more agent and less passive. But in 1832, after the death of her husband Percy Shelley and facing financial pressures, Mary Shelley revised the novel. The changes were significant. She made the creature more monstrous and less sympathetic, and she made Victor Frankenstein more passive and fated. The ending was changed to be more divinely punitive. Many scholars believe these changes reflected her own pessimism and a more conservative outlook on life and society.

For a first-time reader, I almost always recommend the 1818 text. It's the version that established Shelley's reputation as a revolutionary thinker, and it's the one that sparks the most intense discussions in the classroom. You can find it in the Penguin Classics edition, which has an excellent introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle, or in the Norton Critical Edition, which includes both texts so you can compare them yourself. The 1832 text is still a masterpiece, but it's a different kind of book: more melodramatic, more fatalistic, and in my opinion, less intellectually provocative.

If you want to experience the very moment that created a new literary genre, you must read the 1818 text. It's the closest we've got to the mind of an 18-year-old prodigy, and it's a testament to her genius. But if you want to understand the history of the book and its cultural impact, you need to read both. The Norton Critical Edition is the best way to do this, including both versions plus a wealth of critical essays. Just don't make the mistake of reading the 1832 version and thinking you've read Mary Shelley's true work. You won't have.