Which Frankenstein should you experience?
A young scientist builds a man out of the dead, brings him to life, and runs from what he has made. The creature teaches himself to speak and read, asks his maker for a companion, and is refused. That is the novel Mary Shelley published in 1818, told by a ship’s captain in the Arctic who has pulled the dying scientist out of the ice.
It has since been a silent short from Edison’s studio, the flat-headed Universal monster, a Hammer film in colour, a Mel Brooks comedy, a rock musical, a stage play in which the two leads swap roles, a ballet, a horror manga, a novel set in war-torn Baghdad, a video game in which you are the creature, and a board game in which you race to build one. Shelley also revised the novel herself in 1831, so even the book comes in two versions. Which one is right for you depends on what you want tonight.
Or browse every version
If quizzes aren’t your thing, browse instead: 30 versions across reading, watching, listening and playing.
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (Penguin Classics)
The novel as it was first published, in a paperback you can find anywhere.
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (Oxford World’s Classics)
The 1818 text, with the changes of 1831 listed at the back.
The Norton Critical Edition, third edition
The 1818 text with maps, sources, the reviews and eleven critical essays.
Frankenstein: the 1831 text (Penguin Classics, ed. Maurice Hindle)
The revised 1831 novel, with Mary Shelley’s own account of how she came to write it.
The New Annotated Frankenstein (2017)
A big illustrated hardcover with Leslie S. Klinger’s notes beside the text.
Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds (2017)
The 1818 text with notes on the science and the responsibility of making things.
The Original Frankenstein (2009)
Mary Shelley’s draft, printed twice: once as she wrote it, once with Percy Shelley’s changes marked.
Frankenstein, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson
The complete novel with about fifty full-page pen-and-ink drawings.
The Dan Stevens audiobook (2013)
The novel read in full by Dan Stevens.
Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection (2018)
Junji Ito draws Shelley’s novel as horror manga.
Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein (2013)
Shelley’s own words, lightly cut, as an illustrated graphic novel.
Frankenstein, the play by Nick Dear (2011)
The National Theatre script, which starts with the creature’s birth.
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (2018)
The novel retold by Elizabeth, the girl brought into the Frankenstein house to keep Victor company.
Frankissstein (2019)
Jeanette Winterson moves between Mary Shelley in 1816 and a near future of AI and sex robots.
Frankenstein in Baghdad (2018)
In war-torn Baghdad, a scavenger sews the remains of the dead into one body so that someone will bury them.
Frankenstein (1910)
The first film of the novel, made by Edison’s studio, free from the Library of Congress.
Frankenstein (1931)
Boris Karloff, the flat head and the windmill.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The creature asks for a mate, and Elsa Lanchester plays both the Bride and Mary Shelley.
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Peter Cushing’s Baron, Christopher Lee’s creature, and Hammer’s first horror film in colour.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Gene Wilder as the grandson who insists his name is pronounced “Fronkensteen”.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
A stranded couple spend the night in a castle where Dr Frank-N-Furter is about to bring his creation to life.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
Kenneth Branagh as Victor, Robert De Niro as the creature, and the Arctic frame kept.
Frankenstein at the National Theatre (2011)
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate as Victor and the creature, and you can watch both.
Frankenweenie (2012)
A boy called Victor Frankenstein brings his dog back to life.
Frankenstein, The Royal Ballet (2016)
The novel as a full-length ballet, with no words at all.
Poor Things (2023)
Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman brought back to life by a surgeon, who sets out to see the world.
Frankenstein (2025)
Guillermo del Toro’s version, told first by Victor and then by the creature, on a ship in the Arctic.
The Bride! (2026)
In 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein’s creature asks a scientist to make him a companion, and she has her own ideas.
Big Finish’s Frankenstein (2014)
A full-cast audio drama with Arthur Darvill as Victor and Nicholas Briggs as the creature.
The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature (2019)
You play the creature, waking with no memory and learning the world one encounter at a time.
Start with the edition question
Which edition of Frankenstein should you read? explains the 1818 and 1831 texts and compares the Penguin, Oxford, Norton, annotated and illustrated editions.
Every version is the full list.