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Villa Diodati Files. Il primo Frankenstein
Esistono molti Frankenstein. C'è l'edizione definitiva del 1831, la più nota. C'è quella del 1823 curata da William Godwin, padre di Mary Shelley. C'è la prima edizione del 1818, scritta da Mary ma profondamente rivista da suo marito Percy. E c'è, infine, il primo Frankenstein: il testo scritto da Mary, e da Mary sola, fra il 1816 e il 1817, e che qui proponiamo per la prima volta in lingua italiana. Composto tra la Svizzera e l'Inghilterra, sullo sfondo di un'Europa devastata dalla guerra, dal gelo e dalla carestia, il primo Frankenstein è il frutto più immediato degli incubi e delle ossessioni di Villa Diodati: un testo scarno, diretto e disperato, un'opera in cui non esiste morale e in cui nulla è certo. Tutti gli scritti legati alle “fatidiche notti dell'estate 1816”, animate dai coniugi Shelley, da Byron e da Polidori, vengono ricostruiti filologicamente nei due volumi di Villa Diodati Files per condurvi direttamente negli archivi dell'immaginario.
- GenresHorror
432 pages, Paperback
Published December 7, 2018
About the author
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
2,407 books8,964 followersMary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, often known as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, travel writer, and editor of the works of her husband, Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. She was the daughter of the political philosopher William Godwin and the writer, philosopher, and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.
Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer in her own lifetime, though reviewers often missed the political edge to her novels. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. It was not until 1989, when Emily Sunstein published her prizewinning biography Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, that a full-length scholarly biography analyzing all of Shelley's letters, journals, and works within their historical context was published.
The well-meaning attempts of Mary Shelley's son and daughter-in-law to "Victorianise" her memory through the censoring of letters and biographical material contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in the later years of her life added to this impression.
The eclipse of Mary Shelley's reputation as a novelist and biographer meant that, until the last thirty years, most of her works remained out of print, obstructing a larger view of her achievement. She was seen as a one-novel author, if that. In recent decades, however, the republication of almost all her writings has stimulated a new recognition of its value. Her voracious reading habits and intensive study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated. Shelley's recognition of herself as an author has also been recognized; after Percy's death, she wrote about her authorial ambitions: "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea". Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.
Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer in her own lifetime, though reviewers often missed the political edge to her novels. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. It was not until 1989, when Emily Sunstein published her prizewinning biography Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, that a full-length scholarly biography analyzing all of Shelley's letters, journals, and works within their historical context was published.
The well-meaning attempts of Mary Shelley's son and daughter-in-law to "Victorianise" her memory through the censoring of letters and biographical material contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in the later years of her life added to this impression.
The eclipse of Mary Shelley's reputation as a novelist and biographer meant that, until the last thirty years, most of her works remained out of print, obstructing a larger view of her achievement. She was seen as a one-novel author, if that. In recent decades, however, the republication of almost all her writings has stimulated a new recognition of its value. Her voracious reading habits and intensive study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated. Shelley's recognition of herself as an author has also been recognized; after Percy's death, she wrote about her authorial ambitions: "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea". Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 17, 2026
"E io cos'ero? Della mia creazione e del mio creatore non sapevo nulla di nulla: ma sapevo che non avevo denaro, non avevo amici, e non possedevo niente. E per di più ero dotato di un aspetto odiosamente deforme e ripugnante: dell'uomo non avevo nemmeno la natura. Ero più agile di loro, e potevo sopravvivere con un regime alimentare più elementare; sopportavo le estremità del calore e del gelo con meno danni alla mia struttura; e la mia statura sopravanzava di molto la loro. Quando mi guardavo intorno, non vedevo né sentivo di nessuno come me. Ero dunque un mostro, una macchia sulla terra da cui ogni uomo fuggiva e che tutti gli uomini rinnegavano?".
Quanto dolore si rinnova ogni volta che leggo Frankenstein, quanto. Non accettare la responsabilità di una paternità, dell'origine di qualcuno che non è conforme a uno standard, solo perché si è invasi dalla hỳbris; e invece io accetto che la mostruosità sta nell'uomo, non in ciò che viene creato.
Quanto dolore si rinnova ogni volta che leggo Frankenstein, quanto. Non accettare la responsabilità di una paternità, dell'origine di qualcuno che non è conforme a uno standard, solo perché si è invasi dalla hỳbris; e invece io accetto che la mostruosità sta nell'uomo, non in ciò che viene creato.
Displaying 1 of 1 review