Book excerpt: With like many great works of art, 'Frankenstein' was initially misunderstood. The first reviews were decidedly mixed. An anonymous review in The Literary Panorama and National Register published June 1 1818 dismissed Shelley's work as 'a feeble imitation of one that was very popular in its day.' Other periodicals were kinder. Writing in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine on 20 March 1818, Walter Scott praised the unusual Gothic Romance as a "tale, though wild in incident, is written in plain and forcible English, without exhibiting that mixture of hyperbolical Germanisms with which tales of wonder are usually told." 'Frankenstein and the Critics' presents a selection of the most prominent reviews from the time of Frankenstein's publication. Also included is Mary Shelley's uncensored 1818 text often labeled 'Frankenstein 1818' presented in its unabridged entirety. This is the original, 1818 text. In 1831, the more traditionally first "popular" edition in one volume appeared.