Victor Frankenstein és un científic que, abrumat pel dolor de la mort de la seva mare, investiga tècniques sobre com tornar a la vida els éssers. Crea un monstre, del qual fuig fastiguejat pel seu aspecte. El monstre intenta apropar-se als humans, que el rebutgen, i s'amaga al camp, on observa durant un any la vida d'una família i adquireix una mínima educació. Alhora, però, s'adona de com és de diferent de les persones i com mai l'acceptaran, motiu pel qual mata un parent del científic.
A terrifying vision of scientific progress without moral limits, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein leads the reader on an unsettling journey from the sublime beauty of the Swiss alps to the desolate waste of the arctic circle. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Obsessed with the idea of creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material with which to fashion a new being, shocking his creation to life with electricity. But this botched creature, rejected by its creator and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy Frankenstein and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Lord Byron's villa on Lake Geneva.