Mary Shelley

I have elsewhere considered the use of the book to present a library's special collections, more often in the aggregate rather than, as in this series, in the particular. But the British Library is, of course, very special so that any work based on its collections will be drawing on a richness of material more or less unparalleled. Earlier volumes of this series have demonstrated that well enough; suffice to point out that this is not a small popular superficial survey, but a well documented substantial account of an author who deserves fame for more than the Frankenstein everybody knows about. Both her life and her work make for a fascinating biography, and Martin Garrett provides just that. His text alone is notable, but add numerous illustrations from the British Library's archival and printed collections and this becomes a volume as attractive as it is valuable. And that value resides also in making public many relevant items, primarily from the British Library but from other sources as well. The result is a tribute first to its subject, also to its author, but also again to the publishing policy of the UK's national library which uses another attractive book to make the contents of its collections more widely known and understood.