ON THIS TEXT:
This version of Frankenstein's story is an adaptation Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein by Richard Brinsley Peake (1823), in turn based on the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley (1818)
Richard Brinsley Peake's play, Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, opened at the English Opera House on 28 July 1823 and is the first adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. Peake's adaptation provides the first version of the iconic Igor stock character, originally known as Fritz.
Another version exists, under the title of Frankenstein, A Melo-Dramatic Opera in Three Acts, and a third version of the same title was published in "Dick's Standard Plays" (c. 1865).
The play imaged in this adaptation is based on an editorial arrangement by Jeffrey N. Cox, which included all variant texts. For scholarly text, see Seven Gothic Dramas: 1789-1825. Ed. and introduced by Jeffrey N. Cox. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1992.
