Mary Shelley was just 18 when she dreamed up her story of a “pale student of unhallowed arts” and the “hideous phantasm of a man” he created. Now a first edition of her seminal classic of gothic horror, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, has set a world record for the highest price paid for a printed work by a woman, after selling at auction for $1,170,000 (£856,000).

The first edition was one of 500 copies of the novel printed in 1818, and the first to be auctioned since 1985. Christie’s, which described it as “exceptionally rare”, had initially estimated the copy would sell for between $200,000 (£146,000) and $300,000 (£220,000). The auction house said this was a new world auction record for a printed work by a woman, with bidders participating in the auction from around the world. The record for a printed work by a woman was previously held by a first edition of Jane Austen’s Emma from 1816, which was sold by Bonhams in 2008 for £150,000. A copy of JK Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard sold for £1.95m at Sotheby’s in November 2007, but it was handmade and illustrated, as opposed to printed.