Read The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein (Mammoth Books) Online
Authors: Stephen Jones
S
TEPHEN
J
ONES
is the winner of two World Fantasy Awards and two Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards, as well as being a nine-time recipient of the British Fantasy Award and a Hugo Award nominee. A full-time columnist, television producer/director and genre film publicist and consultant (the first three
Hellraiser
movies,
Night Life, Nightbreed, Split Second
etc.), he is the co-editor of
Horror: 100 Best Books, The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales, Gaslight & Ghosts, Now We Are Sick, H.P. Lovecraft’s Book of Horror, The Anthology of Fantasy & the Supernatural
and the
Best New Horror, Dark Voices
and
Fantasy Tales
series. He has written
The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide, The Illustrated Dinosaur Movie Guide
and
The Illustrated Frankenstein Movie Guide
and compiled
The Mammoth Book of Terror, The Mammoth Book of Vampires, The Mammoth Book of Zombies, The Mammoth Book of Werewolves, Shadows Over Innsmouth, Clive Barker’s Shadows in Eden, James Herbert: By Horror Haunted, Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles
and
The Hellraiser Chronicles
.
Also available
The Mammoth Book of Vintage Science Fiction
Short Novels of the 1950s
The Mammoth Book of New Age Science Fiction
Short Novels of the 1960s
The Mammoth Book of Fantastic Science Fiction
Short Novels of the 1970s
The Mammoth Book of Short Science Fiction Novels
The Mammoth Book of Modern Science Fiction
The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories
The Mammoth Book of Short Crime Novels
The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories
The Mammoth Book of Spy Thrillers
The Mammoth Book of True Crime
The Mammoth Book of True Crime 2
The Mammoth Book of True War Stories
The Mammoth Book of Modern War Stories
The Mammoth Book of the Western
The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels
The Mammoth Book of Fantasy All-Time Greats
The Mammoth Book of Short Fantasy Novels
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories 2
The Mammoth Book of the Supernatural
The Mammoth Book of Terror
The Mammoth Book of Puzzles
The Mammoth Book of Vampires
The Mammoth Book of Killer Women
The Mammoth Book of Zombies
The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits
The Mammoth Book of Werewolves
The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Detective Stories
The Mammoth Book of Contemporary SF Masters
THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF
Edited by
S
TEPHEN
J
ONES
Robinson
London
Constable & Robinson Ltd.
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the UK by Robinson Publishing 1994
Collection and introductions copyright © Stephen Jones 1994
Illustrations copyright © Martin McKenna
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication data is
available from the British Library
ISBN 1–85487–330-X
eISBN 978-1-4721-1365-8
Printed by HarperCollins, Glasgow
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover Art by Luis Rey
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
MARY W. SHELLEY
Creature Comforts
NANCY KILPATRICK
Mannikins of Horror
ROBERT BLOCH
El Sueño de la Razón
DANIEL FOX
Pithecanthropus Rejectus
MANLY WADE WELLMAN
Tantamount to Murder
JOHN BRUNNER
The Hound of Frankenstein
PETER TREMAYNE
Mother of Invention
GRAHAM MASTERTON
The Frankenstein Legacy
ADRIAN COLE
A Complete Woman
ROBERTA LANNES
Last Call for the Sons of Shock
DAVID J. SCHOW
The Temptation of Dr Stein
PAUL J. McAULEY
To Receive is Better
MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH
As always, thanks to Jo Fletcher for all her help.
“Introduction: It’s Alive!” copyright © 1994 by Stephen Jones.
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
by Mary W. Shelley. Originally published in 1818, revised in 1831.
“A New Life” copyright © 1987 by Ramsey Campbell. Originally published in
Winter Chills 1
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Creator” copyright © 1978 by R. Chetwynd-Hayes. Originally published in
The Cradle Demon
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Better Dead” copyright © 1994 by Basil Copper.
“Creature Comforts” copyright © 1994 by Nancy Kilpatrick.
“Mannikins of Horror” copyright © 1939 by
Weird Tales
, copyright © renewed 1967 by Robert Bloch. Originally published in
Weird Tales
, December 1939. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, Ralph M. Vicinanza Ltd.
“El Sueño de la Razón” copyright © 1994 by Daniel Fox.
“Pithecanthropus Rejectus” copyright © 1937 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Originally published in
Astounding Stories
, January, 1938. Reprinted by permission of the author’s executor, Karl Edward Wagner.
“Tantamount to Murder” copyright © 1994 by Brunner Fact & Fiction Ltd.
“Last Train” copyright © 1994 by Guy N. Smith.
“The Hound of Frankenstein” copyright © 1977 by Peter Tremayne. Originally published in
The Hound of Frankenstein
. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, A.M. Heath & Company, Ltd.
“Mother of Invention” copyright © 1994 by Graham Masterton.
“The Frankenstein Legacy” copyright © 1994 by Adrian Cole
“The Dead Line” copyright © 1979 by Stuart David Schiff. Copyright © 1982 by Dennis Etchison. Originally published in
Whispers
Number 13–14, October 1979. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Poppi’s Monster” copyright © 1994 by Lisa Morton.
“Undertow” copyright © 1977 by Stuart David Schiff. Originally published in
Whispers
Number 10, August 1977. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“A Complete Woman” copyright © 1994 by Roberta Lannes.
“Last Call for the Sons of Shock” copyright © 1991 by David J. Schow. Originally published in
The Ultimate Frankenstein
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Chandira” copyright © 1994 by Brian Mooney
“Completist Heaven” copyright © 1994 by Kim Newman.
“The Temptation of Dr Stein” copyright © 1994 by Paul J. McAuley.
“To Receive is Better” copyright © 1994 by Michael Marshall Smith.
“The Dead End” copyright © 1969 by David Case. Originally published in
The Cell and Other Tales of Horror
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Frankenstein” copyright © 1994 by Jo Fletcher.
This one is of course for Kim,
in friendship and admiration
.
Introduction
FRANKENSTEIN . . . His very name conjures up images of plundered graves, secret laboratories, electrical experiments and reviving the dead. Within these pages, the maddest doctor of them all and his demented disciples once again delve into the Secrets of Life, as science fiction meets horror when the world’s most famous Monster lives again!
Both maker and Monster were originally conceived in the imagination of Mary W. Shelley during the summer of 1816 in Switzerland. Along with her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley, Dr John Polidori and Lord Byron, who were staying in neighbouring households on the shores of Lake Geneva, the eighteen-year-old Mary decided to try her hand at writing a ghost story. Urged by Percy to develop the result into a book-length work,
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
was published anonymously a year and a half later.