Editorial Principles; Textual Emendations; Annotations

Editorial Principles

General Editorial Principles -- Textual Emendations -- Annotations

General Editorial Principles

All texts are transcribed from reliable standard editions. In the case of translated works, every effort has been made to select an edition known to, or contemporary with, Mary Shelley.

The following silent emendations have been introduced throughout:

Long s has been reduced to short s.
Underscores appear as italics.
Titles of volumes and sections are regularized.
The oe digraph is printed as two letters.
Greek letters are transliterated.
Em-dashes appear as two hyphens.
Footnotes represented by asterisks and daggers have sometimes been numbered, and footnote numbering has been adjusted to reflect the changes in pagination.

In the textual variants screens, deleted material from the 1818 edition is printed [thus], while material added to the 1831 edition appears <thus>. Substantive variants from the draft manuscript, or from the surviving sheets of the printer's fair copy, are rendered, respectively, {MS thus} and {FC thus}.

Emendations to the 1818 Text of Frankenstein

Corrected Errors in Typography

The following frames contain silent corrections to the text, which can, however, be reached through the textual variants screens.

Preface 2: happenened → happened
Letter 1.4: purpose. --> purpose?
Letter 2.2: keeping; --> keeping;
Letter 4.9: determined. --> determined."
1.2.3: guished --> gushed
1.2.6: pour --> pore [pour in 1831]
1.4.4: alighting! --> alighting!"
1.4.5: mysel. --> myself.
1.4.7: of all this? --> of all this"?
1.5.4: Ingoldstadt --> Ingolstadt
1.5.8: Ingoldstadt --> Ingolstadt
1.6.3: Willia mhad --> William had
1.6.9: he." Ah! --> he. "Ah!
1.7.5: ignominy. --> ignominy?
1.7.6: consolation. -->: consolation?
1.7.10: consoled. --> consoled."
2.3.1: Ingoldstadt; --> Ingolstadt;
2.3.2: surrouuded --> surrounded
2.5.3: When --> "When || The --> "The
2.5.4: In --> "In || While --> "While
2.6.6: ItaIy, --> Italy,
2.7.1: As --> "As || Sorrors --> Sorrows
2.7.2: annihihilation --> annihilation
2.7.6: De Lacy --> De Lacey [De Lacey throughout MS]
2.7.7: De Lacy --> De Lacey
2.8.2: De Lacy --> De Lacey
2.8.3: De Lacy --> De Lacey
2.8.4: De Lacy --> De Lacey
2.9.2: wrong,' --> wrong,"
3.1.8: friend --> friend.
3.1.9: December --> September [restored to "December" in 1831 text]
3.2.6: scene labours. --> scene of my labours.
3.3.2: oppresion --> oppression
3.4.2: only only --> only
3.6.6: said. "This --> said, "This
Walton 9: September 19th --> September 9th
Walton 12: in --> "in

Manuscript Variants

The abbreviations MS and FC used in the textual variants frames indicate substantive differences in the text inscribed in, respectively, the extensive draft notebooks and the brief sections of Volume 3 that survive in a printer's fair copy. These are derived from The Frankenstein Notebooks, ed. Charles E. Robinson, 2 vols. (New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1996). It should be emphasized that no attempt has been made here to present a total textual collation, recording accidental differences of punctuation, pronoun substitution, and the like, between the draft manuscript and printed text. Rather, the textual differences cited here, either in their connotations or stylistic values, seem to call attention to themselves by in some measure countering the published text. Intriguing as they may be, we cannot tell whether they were canceled in portions of the fair copy that do not survive or in the printer's proof, or, conversely, whether they were inadvertently altered by the compositor and then not noticed by Mary Shelley in proof.

The following frames contain substantive manuscript variants; these are here enumerated first, with the 1818 printed text following:

1.4.2: lurid --> livid
1.5.3: our house --> her house
1.5.7: gardens of roses --> garden of roses
1.6.2: he had been playing with him --> they had been playing together
1.6.4: a subject for pity --> a fit subject for pity
1.6.5: since that time? --> during that time?
1.7.2: when some one inquired --> when one inquired
1.7.8: Elizabeth embraces the sufferer "I will try --> "I will try
2.1.1: yet in store. --> yet behind.
2.2.2: wind --> word
2.3.8: cow which --> cow, who
2.7.6: directed --> turned
3.3.6: hands --> hand || tying it up --> laying them up
3.4.10: in the [O]rkney island --> on the Orkney islands || permitted to breathe --> allowed to breathe
3.5.1: hand." --> hands."
3.5.6: thought of --> thought on
3.6.4: clouds might lower --> clouds might lour [also FC]
Walton 1: real existence --> really existence [also FC]
Walton 2: I detailed or made notes --> I made notes [also FC]
Walton 7: and these you were to brave --> and these dangers you were to brave || your names --> your name [also FC]
Walton 8: He spoke thus --> He spoke this
Walton 13: that I was --> that I was [also FC, hand of P.B. Shelley]
Walton 15: filled with high thoughts of honour and self devotion --> nourished with high thoughs of honour and devotion
Walton 16: I look on my hands --> I look on the hands || I think of the heart --> I think on the heart