Frankenstein Notebook B

The virtually reconstituted Notebook B is one of two now disbound notebooks, in which Mary W. Shelley (MWS) drafted the two-volume version of Frankenstein. Of British origin, the notebook contained draft running from the sixth chapter of Volume II to its conclusion, written sometime between December 1816 and early April, with final corrections by the Shelleys by the end of April 1817, according to Charles E. Robinson’s Frankenstein Chronology.

The disbound Notebook B now consists of 75 loose leaves comprising Bodleian MS. Abinger c.57 (formerly designated Dep. 534/1), folios 19r-94r. Detailed information about its bibliographical details, including paper, watermarks, inserts, and quiring charts, can be found in Charles E. Robinson’s The Frankenstein Notebooks, pp. xli-xliii. For the S-GA overview of the composition of Frankenstein, see our Introduction.