In this Readers' Guide, Berthold Schoene-Harwood provides a detailed introduction to the most important critical debates on a novel that continues to make its mark in the realms of both 'high' literature and popular culture. The extracts and essays assembled here shed light on Frankenstein's historical and socio-political relevance, its innovative representations of science, gender and identity, as well as its problematic cultural location between academic critique and creative reproduction. Spanning secondary sources from the first reviews in 1818 to postmodern readings of the mid-1990s, the Guide represents an indispensable sourcebook for the study of one of British literature's most exciting and spectacular novels.