Frankenstein (Harper Classics)

A young scientist discovers the secret of creating life and unleashes a terrifying being on the world. Read by James Mason. Book available.

About the Author

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, into a life of personal tragedy. In 1816, she married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and that summer traveled with him and a host of other Romantic intellectuals to Geneva. Her greatest achievement was piecing together one of the most terrifying and renowned stories of all time: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Shelley conceived Frankenstein in, according to her, “a waking dream.” This vision was simply of a student kneeling before a corpse brought to life. Yet this tale of a mad creator and his abomination has inspired a multitude of storytellers and artists. She died on February 1, 1851.Born in England in 1909, James Mason portrayed romantic villains in numerous British films of the 1940s, initally distinguishing with his brooding presence in the 1939 classic, I Met a Murderer.After making Odd Man Out in 1947, he worked in the United States, playing intelligent, but troubled, vulnerable men, most notably in A Star Is Born (1954). He returned to Europe in 1960, where he made Lolita (1962), Georgy Girl (1966), and Cross of Iron (1977).His last film, The Shooting Party (1985), appeared after he died in 1984.

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