The daughter of political philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley (1797–1851) created a remarkable body of work that includes novels, short stories, essays, plays, biographies, and travel books. For many years, she was remembered solely as the author of Frankenstein and the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; today her reputation has risen to that of a major figure in the world of Romantic literature.

This treasury offers the best of Mary Shelley's writings, starting with the complete text of her masterpiece, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, as well as the melancholy novella Mathilda and a significant excerpt from the apocalyptic classic The Last Man. In addition to the essay "On Ghosts," the collection includes a selection of short stories: "Transformation," "The Dream," "The Mortal Immortal," "The False Rhyme," and "Roger Dodsworth: The Reanimated Englishman."