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108 SHELLEY, Mary W. Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1832 The final version of the text, from the family library of her close friend Third and definitive edition of Frankenstein , and the first to be illustrated, with an appealing association, from the family library of her friend, Caroline Norton (1808–1877), the social reformer, women’s rights activist, and author, which is known to have been visited by Shelley. This copy has the armorial bookplate, pencilled shelf marks, and occasional pencil marks in the margins of Norton’s brother, the “profligate, penniless, but charming”, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1806–1888) who had eloped in 1835 with the 19-year old heir to the estate of Frampton Court, Marcia Grant, against her family’s wishes. Built on the site of a priory, rumour had it that a curse was placed on the land at the dissolution of the monasteries, such that no first-born son would ever inherit the estate; at no time did an elder son inherit the estate. Once in place at Frampton, the couple established an extensive library with a famously fine manuscript collection and set up a reading room for the tenants on their lands. Caroline Norton stayed regularly with her brother in Frampton Court from 1835 onwards, including during the Melbourne Scandal in 1836, when her husband George Norton brought a case to court against her and the then-Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, attempting to sue Melbourne for £10,000 in damages for adultery. Sheridan and Norton played host to numerous literary figures, including William Makepeace Thackeray, William Barnes, and Mary Shelley herself, with whom Norton had a long friendship. In 1836 Norton ensured, with Melbourne’s aid, that Shelley received a £300 pension from the Royal Bounty Fund. Shelley’s relationship with Norton has often been cited as an example of her bisexuality. Shelley wrote to their mutual friend Edward: “I do not wonder, at your not being able to deny yourself the pleasure of Mrs. Norton’s society. I never saw a woman I
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thought so fascinating. Had I been a man I should certainly have fallen in love with her; as a woman, ten years ago, I should have been spellbound, and, had she taken the trouble, she might have wound me round her finger. Ten years ago I was so ready to give myself away, and being afraid of men, I was apt to get tousy-mousy for women” (Fraser). The novel was issued complete in volume IX of Bentley’s Standard Novels series, alongside the first part of Johannes Schiller’s Ghost Seer , which was completed in vol. X, adjoined with Charles Brockden Brown’s Edgar Huntly. The Frankenstein volume is often found, as here, without its partner, leaving the Schiller work incomplete. This is the second issue with cancel half-title and title page dated 1832. Though Mary Shelley lived for another 20 years, this was the final revision she made in her lifetime and is the version of the text now generally read. Octavo (164 × 101 mm). Contemporary red morocco-grain half roan, sides and corners trimmed with blind paired fillets, raised bands ruled in blind to spine, compartments lettered in gilt, marbled sides, endpapers and edges. Engraved frontispieces and illustrated title page by Theodor von Holst to each; 4 pp. publisher’s advertisements at rear. Spine sunned, joints and board edges rubbed, light foxing to outer leaves, contents notably clean; a very good copy. ¶ Sadleir 3734a; Wolff 6280a; Antonia Fraser, The Case of the Married Woman, Caroline Norton: A 19th Century Heroine Who Wanted Justice for Women , 2021. £6,500 [157009]
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