Zastrozzi: A Romance

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Zastrozzi A Romance is a Gothic novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley first published in 1810 in London by George Wilkie and John Robinson anonymously, with only the initials of the author’s name in initials. The first of Shelley’s two early Gothic novellas, the other being St. Irvyne, outlines his atheistic worldview through the villain Zastrozzi and touches upon his earliest thoughts on irresponsible self-indulgence and violent revenge. An 1810 reviewer wrote that the main character Zastrozzi is one of the most savage and improbable demons that ever issued from a diseased brain .

Shelley wrote Zastrozzi at the age of seventeen while attending his last year at Eton College, though it was not published until later in 1810 while he was attending University College, Oxford. The novella was Shelley’s first published prose work.

In 1986, the novel was released as part of the Oxford World’s Classics series by Oxford University. Nicole Berry translated the novel in a French edition in 1999. A German translation by Manfred Pfister was published in 2007.