Produced by MFR, Barry Abrahamsen and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE TREASURE HOUSE OF TALES BY GREAT AUTHORS ------- MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Of this Volume, Fifty-five Copies have been printed on Dutch Handmade Paper; of which this is— No. ..41.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TALES AND STORIES BY MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY NOW FIRST COLLECTED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D. KEEPER OF THE PRINTED BOOKS, BRITISH MUSEUM LONDON WILLIAM PATERSON & CO. 1891 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION. ------- IT is customary to regard Mary Shelley’s claims to literary distinction as so entirely rooted and grounded in her husband’s as to constitute a merely parasitic growth upon his fame. It may be unreservedly admitted that her association with Shelley, and her care of his writings and memory after his death, are the strongest of her titles to remembrance. It is further undeniable that the most original of her works is also that which betrays the strongest traces of his influence. _Frankenstein_ was written when her brain, magnetized by his companionship, was capable of an effort never to be repeated. But if the frame of mind which engendered and sustained the work was created by Shelley, the conception was not his, and the diction is dissimilar to his. Both derive from Godwin, but neither is Godwin’s. The same observation, except for an occasional phrase caught from Shelley, applies to all her subsequent work. The frequent exaltation of spirit, the ideality and romance, may well have been Shelley’s—the general style of execution neither repeats nor resembles him.