Looking for Mary Shelley books? Born in London to William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, she wrote Frankenstein at nineteen, during the 1816 summer with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.
Frankenstein was only the start: she also wrote novels, dozens of tales, travel books and biographies. Here you'll find The Last Man, Mathilda and Valperga next to the Gothic classic that gave birth to science fiction.
Every book is free to read online or download as PDF. Start with Frankenstein, then follow her into the plague-ridden future of The Last Man.
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Novels
Mary Shelley Novels
Mary Shelley's novels go far beyond Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Here you'll find the deadly plague of The Last Man, the medieval Italy of Valperga and the buried secrets of Falkner.
Victor Frankenstein builds a living creature from dead matter, abandons it the night it opens its eyes, and the creature comes looking for him. Our own Project Aldus edition of the 1831 text, with Mary Shelley's Introduction and the 1818 Preface.
A plague spreads across the world in the late 21st century, and Lionel Verney watches humanity disappear one city at a time. One of the first apocalyptic novels ever written, and the book Shelley considered her most personal.
Historical novel set in 14th century Italy that follows the rise of Castruccio, prince of Lucca, and the two women who try to hold him back from tyranny. All three volumes come together in a single file.
A short novel about a young woman who tells, from her deathbed, how her father's forbidden love destroyed both their lives. Written in 1819 and left unpublished for more than a century, it is Shelley's darkest and most intimate work.
Historical romance about the young man who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the princes lost in the Tower, and fought to win back the English crown. Shelley takes his side and turns the Wars of the Roses into a story of loyalty and loss.
Lord Lodore flees to America with his daughter Ethel after a scandal, and the story follows her and his estranged wife as they rebuild their lives in London. A novel about family, money and women's independence.
An orphan girl saves a man from suicide and grows up as his adopted daughter, until a buried crime from his past comes back. Shelley's last novel, a tense story of guilt, loyalty and redemption.
As a short story writer, Shelley published most of her tales in annuals like The Keepsake, and each one fits in a single sitting. If Frankenstein hooked you, start with The Mortal Immortal, about a man who drinks an elixir of life.
Seventeen tales first published in literary annuals like The Keepsake, including The Mortal Immortal, Transformation and The Invisible Girl. Italian villas, Greek wars and doomed lovers in short Gothic stories you can finish in one sitting.
A young apprentice drinks his master's elixir of life and discovers that living forever means watching everyone he loves grow old. Her most famous tale after Frankenstein.
A ruined young nobleman trades bodies with a deformed stranger in exchange for treasure and then has to win his own body back. A Gothic tale of pride and punishment that echoes Frankenstein.
A lonely tower on the Welsh coast hides a portrait of a girl who vanished after her guardian threw her out. A short romantic tale of secrets, storms and a love that refuses to give up.
In the hills near Sorrento, the cruel prince of Mondolfo disowns his gentle son, who falls in love with a peasant girl. A tale of medieval Italy found among Leigh Hunt's papers and published after Shelley's death.
Her travel writing begins with a love story: the 1814 escape with Percy Shelley across France and Switzerland, told in History of a Six Weeks' Tour. You'll also find Proserpine and Midas, two verse dramas based on Greek myth, and her lives of great French writers.
The journal of Mary and Percy Shelley's 1814 elopement across France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland, plus their letters from Lake Geneva and Chamonix. It also includes the first printing of Percy's poem Mont Blanc.
Letters from Mary Shelley's journeys with her son through Germany and Italy between 1840 and 1843, full of art, landscapes and Italian politics. Both volumes come together in one file.
Two short verse dramas based on Greek myth: the abduction of Proserpine by Pluto and the story of King Midas and his golden touch. Written in 1820 and printed for the first time a century later.
A short essay from 1824 in which Shelley asks why ghosts no longer appear to modern people and then tells the ghost stories she heard from friends. A quick read that shows her Gothic side outside fiction.
Mary Shelley's biographies of French writers and thinkers like Montaigne, Rabelais, Molière, Voltaire, Rousseau and Madame de Staël, written for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia. Both volumes come together in one file.
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as a teenager and kept writing for three more decades. Her other books show a Romantic author drawn to loss, ambition and what it means to be human.
Want more writers from her era? Explore our classic authors with free books in PDF.
