Frankenstein (The Norton Library) by Mary Shelley
About Shelley's Frankenstein
I read [Frankenstein] in one sitting, and by the end of it, I was weeping. It was my Road to Damascus. It illuminated the reason I loved monsters, my kinship with them, and showed me how deep, how life-changing, a monster parable could be-how it could function as art and how it could reach across distance and time and become a palliative to solitude and pain. ... The exquisite Via Crucis [Shelley] crafted for her creature speaks to all outsiders and will continue to do so for centuries to come. - Guillermo del Toro