Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, Prometheus Unbound, and The Cenci are three literary masterpieces written in about three years from late 1816 to late 1819. Although these works differ significantly in literary forms and intended audiences, all three are deeply concerned with Promethean themes.
According the preface of the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, the idea for Frankenstein arose in the summer of 1816. Aspects of the 1831 preface raise serious questions about its factual reliability.^ Fairly good evidence indicates that the authoring of Frankenstein was ongoing by the fall of 1816. By the end of May, 1817, a fair-copy of Frankenstein was sent to the publisher John Murray. Murray was the publisher for Byron. Byron, a friend of Shelley’s, by then was already a highly popular author. Murray rejected Frankenstein. On Aug. 3, 1817, Shelley asked his publisher, Charles Ollier, to publish Frankenstein. Ollier also rejected it. With further effort, Shelley persuaded Lackington, Allen & Co. to print it. Printing was underway in the fall of 1817. Printed copies of Frankenstein were made available to the public at the beginning of January, 1818.
Work on Prometheus Unbound began no later than the end of August of 1818. Shelley had a draft of the first three acts of Prometheus Unbound written by April, 1819. In the fall of 1819, Shelley added Act IV to Prometheus Unbound. Printing of Prometheus Unbound probably finished in London in August, 1820.
The Cenci was written between May and August of 1819. Shelley had The Cenci printed in August or September of 1819, but he allowed the printed copies to be distributed only early in 1820.
Underscoring Shelley’s interest in Prometheus during this period, Shelley translated at least a section of Prometheus Bound from English into Greek. Shelley was then living as intimates with the nineteen-year-old Mary Godwin. She wrote in her notebook “S {Shelley} traslates {translates} Promethes Desmotes {Prometheus Bound} and I write it.”^ Shelley was long and intensely interested in ancient Greek literature, particularly Prometheus. Mary Godwin lacked a classical education. In 1814, Shelley quoted a line of Greek in a letter to Mary. That prompted Mary to study Greek for a few days. She seems to have resumed study of Greek only in 1820.
Both Frankenstein and The Cenci were initially intended to be presented to the public with anonymous authorship. Shelley recognized the promotional value of various authorial poses, including anonymity. With respect to authoring Frankenstein, insightful recent work has noted the important difference between “writing” and “authoring.” That difference is obscured in a major, highly regarded scholarly work on the authorship of Frankenstein.^
Institutionalized literary authorities nearly uniformly insist that Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley authored Frankenstein. A wide range of authorities for more than two decades have failed to reject grotesquely false, sensationally prejudicial claims about domestic violence. In these intellectual circumstances, discussing the authorship of Frankenstein seems futile. In any case, the rise of mass incarceration is a much more important issue to consider and discuss. A shift in communicative standpoints from second-personal to third-personal seems to lessen moral accountability for imprisonment. Frankenstein, Prometheus Unbound, and The Cenci exemplify that shift.