ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the manuscript and printed texts of Mary Shelley's novel. It deals with the textual situation of Frankenstein, noting the difficulties it poses for constructing a genealogy of the novel. The chapter addresses interpretive questions as well as several conditions of feminine authorship. It suggests that strategies for teaching the textual, interpretive and gender issues raised by the several versions of Frankenstein. In the Abinger Collection at Oxford's Bodleian Library reside the two surviving manuscripts of Frankenstein; both are incomplete, and neither is unadulterated Mary Shelley. Son of Frankenstein uses the Mad/Bad Scientist trope to rewrite the father-son relation between the novel's Victor and his creation. Son of Frankenstein focuses on the struggle among Wolf, the town's men, and Ygor to define and control the Frankenstein inheritance. In an effort to consolidate this distinction, the movie reworks both the novel's monstrous father-son relations and Son of Frankenstein's problematic of paternal science.
