The mortal immortal

While the legacy of Mary Shelley as the creator of Frankenstein has shown no sign of waning, and her name is synonymous with the roots of the science-fiction genre, few have read her other novellas, and 'The Mortal Immortal' - a short story concerned with ageing while being unable to die - is an unjustly neglected gem in her bibliography. While for generations critics considered the fact that she was married to Percy Bysshe Shelley to be the most interesting thing about her, and most modern readers only meet her best-known work, Mary Shelley's Gothic short stories and novellas are ripe for revisiting. One of the finest in her oeuvre, this story is every inch as powerful and chilling as when it was written.