Complete and unabridged, with 53 full-page plates by László Mednyánszky, Francisco Goya and Edvard Munch. A student of natural philosophy discovers the secret of life, assembles a creature from the dead, and flees the room the moment it opens its eyes. Everything that follows — the abandonment, the pursuit, the demand for a companion — comes from that flight rather than from the act of creation. Mary Shelley was eighteen when she began it, and the questions she raised have outlived every answer science has offered since. Fifty-three paintings by Edvard Munch and Francisco Goya, from the four stages of life to mountain landscapes and ruined abbeys, trace the solitude and dread that follow the creature from the laboratory.