Main description:

In pairing these two famous gothic science fiction novels for the first time, this volume provides a rare opportunity to explore numerous topics common to both texts, such as the nature of the human and the limits and promises of the proliferating natural sciences in the 19th century. Additional works include writings by other 19th-century authors (including Darwin, Huxley, and Tennyson) and modern critics.

Contents:

About This Series Introduction A Note on the Texts I. Frankenstein and The Island of Doctor Moreau Mary Shelley, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) II. Contexts: Science and Literature in the Nineteenth Century Mary Shelley, Author's Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition (1831) Erasmus Darwin, from The Botanic Garden Part II, Containing the Loves of the Plants: A Poem (1789) Erasmus Darwin, from Zoonomia (1794-6) Erasmus Darwin, from The Temple of Nature, Canto II (1803) Alfred Lord Tennyson, from In Memoriam (1850) Charles Darwin, from The Descent of Man (1874) Thomas Henry Huxley, from "Evolution and Ethics" (1893) III. Contemporary Views Marilyn Butler, "Frankenstein and Radical Science" (1993) Maureen N. McLane, from Literate Species (2000) Coral Lansbury, from The Old Brown Dog (1985) Jennifer DeVere Brody, from Deforming Island Races (1998) Chronology Works Cited For Further Reading