MLA Citation For Frankenstein | Student-Friendly Examples

Teachers love assigning Frankenstein, and that means students spend a lot of time writing about it. Clear MLA citation keeps your paper tidy, shows where your evidence comes from, and helps your reader find the exact edition you used. The good news is that once you learn the pattern for this novel, you can reuse the same logic for almost any book in MLA 9.

This article walks you through Works Cited entries and in-text citations for Frankenstein in plain language. You will see how to handle common editions, online copies, e-books, and references to criticism about the novel. By the end, you can move from title page to finished MLA entry without guesswork.

Basics Of MLA Citation For Frankenstein

MLA 9 treats Frankenstein like any other single-author book. A standard Works Cited entry follows the core pattern that the Modern Language Association uses for books: author, title, publisher, and publication date. Extra pieces such as editors, translators, or series names sit between those main parts when needed.

The MLA core elements template organizes source details in a fixed order. For a stand-alone book, the main elements you usually use are:

• Author.
• Title of source (the book title) in italics.
• Other contributors (such as an editor), if needed.
• Version (edition statement), if listed.
• Publisher.
• Publication date.

For Frankenstein, a simple modern edition with no named editor might look like this on your Works Cited page:

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Oxford University Press, 2018.

This model matches MLA 9 guidance for a book by a single author: last name, first name, italicized title, publisher, and year.

Core Elements You Need From Your Edition

Before you write your Works Cited entry, gather details from the version of Frankenstein you used. Open the title page and copyright page and write down:

• The exact form of the author name printed there.
• The full title, including the subtitle “or, The Modern Prometheus” if it appears.
• Any named editor, translator, or series editor.
• The edition statement, such as “2nd ed.” or “1818 text.”
• The publisher name.
• The publication year of the edition you read.

Once you have those pieces, you can drop them into the MLA template in the right order. This keeps your Frankenstein citation tied to the exact text and notes your reader will see if they pick up the same book.

Sample Basic Works Cited Entry

Here is a clean example for a widely used critical edition:

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Edited by J. Paul Hunter, 2nd ed., W. W. Norton, 2012.

This entry includes the author, the novel title, the editor as an “other contributor,” the edition statement, the publisher, and the year. The order follows the pattern the MLA Style Center guidance on citing books explains for book entries.

How To Format An MLA Works Cited Entry For Frankenstein

Many students have the right information in front of them but struggle with punctuation and order. This section shows a step-by-step route from title page to finished Works Cited entry for the novel.

Step 1: Start With The Author

Write the author in “last name, first name” form and end with a period:

Shelley, Mary.

If your edition prints “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley,” MLA still lets you shorten this to the given and family name that readers know best, so “Mary Shelley” works well in most classroom papers.

Step 2: Add The Title In Italics

Next, add the title of the novel in italics and follow it with a period. Keep the capital letters and subtitle shown on the title page:

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

If your edition drops the subtitle, just use the main title. The key point is that the title matches what your reader sees when they open the book.

Step 3: Add Publisher And Year

After the italicized title, add the publisher and the publication year, separated by a comma and ending with a period:

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Modern MLA no longer requires a city of publication for most books, so you usually do not need to include a place name for Frankenstein unless you are following older instructions from a specific teacher.

Step 4: Adjust For Special Editions And Formats

Many assignments use editions with extra material, such as introductions, notes, or explanatory essays. In those cases, add extra elements between the title and the publisher:

• Edited volume: add “Edited by [Name]” after the title.
• New edition: add the edition after the editor, such as “3rd ed.”
• Translated text: add “Translated by [Name]” after the title or editor.
• Series volume: add the series name and volume number after the edition, if your teacher asks for it.

E-books follow the same pattern but may add an e-reader label such as “Kindle ed.” or a platform as a second container if you accessed the book through a subscription database. For many student papers, a simple e-book entry with author, title, publisher, year, and e-book label is enough.

Common MLA Works Cited Entries For Frankenstein

The table below gathers several common Frankenstein MLA Works Cited entries you might need in class. Each row shows the type of source, a template you can adapt, and a concrete example.

Edition Or Source	Works Cited Template	Example Entry
Standard modern print book	Author. Title. Publisher, Year.	Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Print book with editor and edition	Author. Title. Edited by Editor, Edition, Publisher, Year.	Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Edited by J. Paul Hunter, 2nd ed., W. W. Norton, 2012.
1818 text scholarly edition	Author. Title: Subtitle. Publisher, Year.	Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus: The 1818 Text. Oxford University Press, 1998.
E-book	Author. Title. Publisher, Year. E-book ed.	Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Penguin Classics, 2012. E-book ed.
Book on a website	Author. Title. Publisher, Year. Website Name, URL.	Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones, 1818. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/84.
Frankenstein essay in an anthology	Author of Essay. “Essay Title.” Anthology Title, edited by Editor, Publisher, Year, pp. page range.	Smith, John. “Victor’s Ambition And Responsibility.” Critical Essays on Frankenstein, edited by Anne Brown, Academic Press, 2020, pp. 45–62.
Film adaptation on streaming platform	Film Title. Directed by Director, performances by Main Actors, Production Company, Year. Platform Name, URL.	Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, performances by Robert De Niro and Kenneth Branagh, TriStar Pictures, 1994. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/xxxx.

Every entry in that table follows the same MLA order for books and related works. Once you can read one row, you can adapt it to your own assignment with different years, editors, and page ranges.

MLA In-Text Citations For Frankenstein

Works Cited entries handle the full publishing details. Inside the body of your essay, MLA 9 uses brief in-text citations that point back to those entries. For Frankenstein, in-text citations almost always include the author’s last name and a page number.

Parenthetical Citations With Page Numbers

The most common format places the author and page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence. There is no comma between the name and number:

(Shelley 45)

Use this pattern when you quote or paraphrase a passage from the novel and have not already named Mary Shelley in your sentence. The reference tells readers to look for the Shelley entry on your Works Cited page and then find page 45 in that edition.

Naming The Author In The Sentence

If you mention Shelley in the sentence itself, you only need the page number in parentheses:

Shelley shows Victor’s horror at his creation in the bedroom scene (45).

This format keeps the sentence smooth while still pointing to the same Works Cited entry. MLA 9 keeps the parenthetical citation as short as possible, so there is no need to repeat the author’s name twice.

Multiple Works Or Editions

Some papers compare different editions of Frankenstein or pair the novel with another work by Mary Shelley. In that case, you may need to add a short title to your in-text citation so your reader knows which entry you mean:

(Shelley, Frankenstein 102)

Short titles should match the first part of the title in your Works Cited entry. Keep them as brief as you can while still being clear. If your teacher asks you to use two different editions of the novel, label them in your Works Cited list and echo that label in your in-text citation when needed.

In-Text Citation Patterns For Frankenstein At A Glance

The table below sums up common in-text formats for Frankenstein. Use it as a quick check while you draft your essay.

Citation Situation	Format	Example
Quoting with no author in sentence	(Author Page)	(Shelley 34)
Quoting with author in sentence	(Page)	Shelley shows the “miserable monster” entering the room (85).
Paraphrasing a scene	(Author Page)	(Shelley 120)
Using more than one work by Shelley	(Author, Short Title Page)	(Shelley, Frankenstein 210)
Quoting a long passage split across pages	(Author Page–Page)	(Shelley 150–151)
Referring to general themes with no page focus	Optional page number	Shelley links scientific ambition with isolation (Shelley).
Citing the novel in an online edition with no page numbers	Use chapter or section label if given	(Shelley, ch. 3)

Check your assignment sheet to see whether your instructor expects chapter labels for online texts or prefers page numbers from a specific print edition. If both are available, stick to one system across the whole paper.

Common Student Mistakes With Frankenstein MLA Citations

Even careful writers tend to repeat the same citation errors with this novel. Watching for these trouble spots can save marks and make your essay easier to read.

Mixing Up The Original And Modern Dates

Frankenstein has an original publication date in the early nineteenth century and many later editions. MLA asks you to use the publication year of the edition you actually read in your Works Cited entry. If your Norton edition came out in 2012, your Works Cited entry should show 2012, not 1818 or 1831.

You can mention the original publication year in the body of your essay when you talk about context. The date in the Works Cited entry signals which physical or digital object your reader should locate.

Leaving Out Editors And Edition Details

Critical editions of Frankenstein often include helpful introductions, notes, and appendices. When you use one of these books, the editor’s name and the edition statement belong in your Works Cited entry. This helps your reader tell one edition from another and gives credit to the people who prepared the scholarly material.

Many library guides and resources such as Purdue OWL’s MLA book examples show how to place editors and edition numbers in the entry.

Using The Wrong Punctuation In In-Text Citations

Students sometimes add commas or “p.” before page numbers inside parentheses. MLA 9 keeps things simple: no comma between the author name and page number, and no “p.” before the number. Place the period for the sentence after the closing parenthesis.

Correct: (Shelley 77).
Incorrect: (Shelley, p. 77.)

Forgetting To Match In-Text Citations To Works Cited Entries

Every in-text citation that mentions Frankenstein should match a complete entry on your Works Cited page. The name you use inside parentheses must be the same name that leads your Works Cited entry. If you shorten “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley” to “Mary Shelley” in the Works Cited entry, then use “Shelley” in your in-text citations.

This one-to-one match lets your reader move back and forth between your quotes and your source list without confusion.

Last-Minute MLA Checklist For Frankenstein Assignments

Before you turn in a paper that uses Frankenstein, run through this short checklist. It helps you catch small MLA details that graders often look at when they mark citation quality.

• On the Works Cited page, the entry for Frankenstein starts with “Shelley, Mary.” followed by the italicized title.
• The entry includes the correct publisher and the year of the edition you actually used.
• If your edition has an editor, translator, or numbered edition, those details appear in the entry in MLA order.
• Every in-text reference to the novel uses either (Shelley Page) or a sentence with Shelley named and a page number in parentheses.
• In-text citations and the Works Cited entry use the same author name form.
• The Works Cited page heading is “Works Cited,” and the Frankenstein entry uses a hanging indent like other sources on the list.
• Any extra sources related to Frankenstein, such as critical essays or films, have their own correctly formed MLA entries.

Once this checklist matches your paper, your MLA citation for Frankenstein will be clear, consistent, and ready for close reading by your instructor.