On 14 May 1817 Mary Shelley notes in her Journal that she wrote a preface to Frankenstein
and finished work on the novel. Over the next several months the fair-copy was read
by Godwin and several publishers; then in late August terms were struck for a contract
with Lackington, Allen & Co. At that point a new preface of just four paragraphs in
length was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, as if in Mary's hand. In the end, this
was the Preface that appeared with the novel. Mary Shelley's original remarks from
May 1817 have apparently not survived.