The novel is read today in two slightly different versions: the first edition of 1818, written by a very young Mary Shelley; and the edition of 1831, in which irreversible fate is more powerful than human free will. Other minor differences between the two texts originate in yet another version, from 1823. The present edition uses the original 1818 text, more useful for students of British Romanticism. However, corrections from 1823 that the novelist chose to preserve in 1831 have been incorporated, in the hope of doing justice to the young Mary Shelley without entirely disregarding the wishes of the mature author.