Preface
On 14 May 1817 Mary Shelley
notes in her Journal that she wrote a preface to Frankenstein and
finished work on the novel. Over the next several months the fair-copy
was read by Godwin and several
publishers; then in late August terms were
struck for a contract with Lackington, Allen & Co. At that point a new
preface of just four paragraphs in length was written by Percy Bysshe
Shelley, as if in Mary's hand. In the end, this was the Preface that
appeared with the novel. Mary Shelley's original remarks from May 1817
have apparently not survived.
