This book posits adaptations as 'hideous progeny,' Mary Shelley's term for her novel, Frankenstein . Like Shelley's novel and her fictional Creature, adaptations that may first be seen as monstrous in fact compel us to shift our perspective on known literary or film works and the cultures that gave rise to them.

Julie Grossman is Professor of English and Communication and Film Studies at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, where she teaches courses in literature, film, and gender and cultural studies. She has published numerous scholarly articles on film, literature, art, and adaptation. Grossman is co-editor of A Due Voci: The Photography of Rita Hammond (2003), author of Rethinking the Femme Fatale in Film Noir: Ready for her Close-Up (2009, 2012), and her co-authored monograph (with Therese Grisham) on the directing work of Ida Lupino is forthcoming.