The Tales of Villa Diodati - Mary Shelley

The Tales of Villa Diodati by Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley brings together landmark Gothic and early science fiction writing associated with the Villa Diodati gathering of 1816. This paperback edition is published with the subtitle The origins of iconic science fiction and gothic fiction.

Included titles

• Frankenstein
• The Vampyre
• A Fragment
• Fragment of a Ghost Story

Key details

• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 256
• Publisher: Dover Publications Inc
• Publication date: 27 October 2023
• ISBN: 9780486851365
• Dimensions: 127 x 203 x 120 mm

Synopsis

Set against the backdrop of 1816, the “Year Without a Summer”, this collection traces a celebrated moment in English-language Gothic horror, when writers gathered at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva and challenged one another to create ghost stories while confined indoors by bleak weather. The resulting anthology blends the macabre, the supernatural and romance, capturing the spirit of that legendary contest.

Selections include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, described here as the first true science fiction novel, alongside John Polidori’s The Vampyre, noted as an early example of the romantic vampire genre. Also included are Lord Byron’s A Fragment, which inspired Polidori’s tale, and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Fragment of a Ghost Story.

Rackhams Reference : IWD8CLNN6V