In this book, Daisy Hay explores the novel's time and place, its people, the relics of its long afterlife and the notebooks in which it was created. This is a compelling and innovative biography of the novel for all those fascinated by its essential, brilliant chaos.

The author of "Young Romantics" explores the time, place, objects and manuscripts that influenced or contributed to Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". This stripping of the novel down to its constituent parts reveals Mary Shelley from an original perspective.