Publisher Description
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and commentary by Alison Larkin - 200th anniversary audio edition.
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.
"At once terrifying and heartbreaking...a deeply satisfying listen"—AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner!)
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“Hayward’s raspy character voice for the monster perfectly embodies the creepy sensation of hearing a terrifying yet gentle creature tell his woeful tale. His pitch and cadence serve to push the narrative along in a manner that leaves the listener begging for more. Hayward artfully heightens the intensity of anger and longing every time the monster speaks. In addition, he captures the tortured determination, fear, revulsion, and eventual self-loathing of Dr. Frankenstein with precision….[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner] is also adeptly narrated by Hayward. Both classics are worth revisiting on audio in this fine recording.”
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Booklist (audio review)
About the Authors
Mary Shelley (1797–1851), née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, was born in London, the second daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, well known feminist, philosopher, educator, and writer, and William Godwin, famous English philosopher, novelist, and journalist. She was best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, written when she was eighteen and published when she was twenty-one. She was married to the Romantic writer Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) studied classics at Jesus College, Cambridge. As a radical young poet he collaborated with Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads. He was by turns poet, dramatist, political journalist, essayist, and public lecturer. Chronic ill health and addiction to opium led to his death in 1834.