Mary Shelley may have only made a third of the net profits from the initial run of 500 copies of Frankenstein in 1818, but today she would have raked in more than $1 million from just one of those same books.
A first edition of the story of Victor Frankenstein has sold at a New York auction for a record-breaking $1.17m, setting a new world auction record for a printed work by a woman.
The story follows a young scientist who fashions a monster out of body parts in an unorthodox experiment, and is widely considered to be one of the world's first science-fiction novels, with themes that are still as relevant today.
Christie's, which hosted the auction, had estimated it would go for $200,000-300,000, but it instead went for four to six times that price.
It was part of The Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B Baum, which closed on September 14 and sold across two live and online sales, totalling $9,657,875.
An inscribed first edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula, which sold for $275,000, also set an auction record, while the top-selling work in the online portion was a presentation copy of the first edition of James Joyce's Dubliners, which went for more than $150,000 above estimate, at $400,000.
'Exceptionally rare'
The Frankenstein was an 1818 first edition, uncut in original boards. It was published anonymously in London by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, and included a preface written by Percy and a dedication to the author’s father, William Godwin.
Christie's said copies such as these are "exceptionally rare".
It is the first copy of the story to be auctioned since 1985.
The story, which Shelley had famously dreamt up while staying by Lake Geneva with husband Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, was contentious for the times.
“The manufacture of a creature from human parts without divine assistance was highly controversial,” according to Miranda Seymour, author of the biography Mary Shelley.
Back then, Scottish novelist Walter Scott praised Shelley's "original genius" and "uncommon powers of poetic imagination", but a critique in Quarterly Review pondered "whether the head or the heart of the author be the most diseased".
Today, as Christie's puts it, it is known as a "masterpiece of gothic horror" and "has now reached the same mythic cultural status as Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe".
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Rating: 5/5
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Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare
Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.
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Director: Shazia Iqbal
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MATCH INFO
FA Cup final
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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