Collected Tales and Stories with Original Engravings

Passion. Peril. Imposture. Shipwreck. Alchemy. Transformation. This is the stuff of Mary Shelley’s richly Romantic stories. Set against varying backdrops of medieval chivalry, the wars and revolutions of her age, and grandiose scenes of nature, her tales mark a high point in the Gothic storytelling art. Long out of print, these stories are made available once again in a meticulously annotated and corrected softcover edition. Most of Mary Shelley’s short narratives were published in The Keepsake (1823-57), the most enduring and popular of the nineteenth-century annual gift books. The fine original engravings that accompany the stories are all reproduced in this new edition. Within the constraints of space and illustration imposed by The Keepsake , Robinson notes in his introduction, Mary Shelley produced some of her most intense and incandescent writing.

Contains the following stories: A Tale of the Passions, Recollections of Italy, The Bride of Modern Italy, Roger Dodsworth: The Reanimated Englishman, The Sisters of Albano, Ferdinando Eboli: A Tale, The Mourner, The Evil Eye, The False Rhyme, Transformation, The Swiss Peasant, The Dream, The Brother and Sister: An Italian Story, The Invisible Girl, The Smuggler and His Family, The Mortal Immortal: A Tale, The Trial of Love, The Elder Son, The Parvenue, The Pilgrims, Euphrasia: A Tale of Greece, The Heir of Mondolfo, Valerius: The Reanimated Roman, An Eighteenth-Century Tale: A Fragment, The Pole (primarily by Claire Clairmont, conclusion by Mary Shelley).