Bodleian MS. Abinger c.58

Bodleian MS Abinger c.58 (formerly designated Dep. 534/2) consists of 30 leaves, 18 of which were originally bound in Notebook C1 and 12 of which were originally bound in Notebook C2, the two extant notebooks in which the Shelleys prepared fair copy for a three-volume version of Frankenstein to send prospective publishers and, ultimately, the printer. It begins with Volume III, Chapter 5 and ends in Chapter 8, almost at the conclusion of the novel, in the midst of the Creature’s final speech to Walton. This fair copy was written sometime between mid-April and late May 1817, according to Charles E. Robinson’s Frankenstein Chronology.

The pages of c.58 can be accessed in three different sequences: (1) in their current physical sequence below; (2) in their order within a virtually reconstituted Notebook C1 and Notebook C2; and (3) in the linear sequence of the three-volume fair copy. For bibliographical details about c.58, see the introductions to Notebook C1 and Notebook C2. For the S-GA overview of the composition of Frankenstein, see our Introduction.