『フランケンシュタイン』の作者、ロマン派詩人P・B・シェリーの妻、アナキズムの先駆者W・ゴドウィンと『女性の権利の擁護』を執筆したM・ウルストンクラフトの娘でもあるメアリー・シェリー（1797-1851年）を取り上げます。20歳で出版した『フランケンシュタイン』創作の背景、そこに凝縮されたテーマを概観し、それ以降の作品の重要性を明らかにします。特徴ある文体に加え、すべての人の公正と自由、論理的思考と愛で世の中を変えるというテーマを育んだシェリーが母から受けた影響の大きさも考察します。(cf. Frankenstein: or 'The Modern Prometheus': The 1818 Text, Frankenstein: Or The Modern Prometheus, The Last Man from the Oxford World's Classics)
 

　　　
In 1816, when eighteen-year old Mary Godwin began writing Frankenstein, the idea that a woman could dream up such a tale was as far-fetched as raising a being from the dead. But Mary wasn't just any woman. The daughter of two notorious radicals, Mary had become an outcast from English society when she was only sixteen. A lifelong advocate for the rights of women, she refused to be governed by social conventions, running away with a married man, having children out of wedlock, and authoring books, stories, and essays that broke literary conventions.
　　
This Very Short Introduction explores the context, background, and important themes contained in Shelley's most famous novel, Frankenstein, as well as demonstrating the importance of her work after Frankenstein. Over the course of her long career, Shelley developed a distinctive voice, and a political and philosophical stance. Exploring key themes throughout Shelley's work, Charlotte Gordon shows how she devoted herself to the propositions her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, outlined in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that women are equal to men; that all people deserve the same rights; that human reason and the capacity for love can reform the world; and that every person is entitled to justice and freedom.