The anonymous 1818 first edition of Frankenstein was published in three volumes.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus appeared in London on January 1, 1818, from the firm Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones. It was issued in the era’s fashionable “triple-decker” format, a three-volume structure commonly used for circulating-library novels. The first print run was approximately 500 copies.
The book was anonymous, although Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote its preface and helped prepare the manuscript for publication. Mary Shelley was identified by name in later editions. The 1823 second English edition appeared in two volumes, while the heavily revised 1831 edition was published as a single volume. That change in format is a common source of confusion when readers encounter different bibliographic descriptions.
The first edition’s three volumes contained the same basic story of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, but the 1831 revision altered wording, emphasis, and some character details. Surviving manuscripts for the original three-volume edition are held by Oxford’s Bodleian Library.