Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

By Mary Shelley

A timeless, terrifying tale of one man’s obsession to create life—and the monster that became his legacy. “If ever a book needed to be placed in context, it’s Frankenstein” (The New York Times Book Review).

A timeless, terrifying tale of one man's obsession to create life—and the monster that became his legacy.

This edition includes:
-A concise introduction that gives readers important background information
-A chronology of the author’s life and work
-A timeline of significant events that provides the book’s historical context
-An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations
-Detailed explanatory notes
-Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
-Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
-A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader’s experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world’s finest books to their full potential.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Release date: May 1, 2004
• ISBN: 9781416501831

Mary Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in 1797, the daughter of two of the leading radical writers of the age. Her mother died just days after her birth and she was educated at home by her father and encouraged in literary pursuits. She eloped with and subsequently married the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, but their life together was full of hardship. The couple were ruined by disapproving parents and Mary lost three of her four children. Although its subject matter was extremely dark, her first novel Frankenstein (1818) was an instant sensation. Subsequent works such as Mathilda (1819), Valperga (1823) and The Last Man (1826) were less successful but are now finally receiving the critical acclaim that they deserve.

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Cover: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Mary Shelley

Supplemental material written by Margaret Brantley

Series edited by Brantley Johnson

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FRANKENSTEIN:

THE MOTHER OF GOTHIC HORROR

Published in 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a model for Gothic fiction, science fiction, and all the horror novels that followed it. Weaving the Gothic elements of the supernatural, terror, anguish, and love with the Romantic values of nature and individualism, Shelley delivers a chilling tale about unchecked ambition and the consequences of disturbing the order of nature. Generations of scientists, ethicists, psychologists, feminists, and artists have been inspired and riveted by Mary Shelley’s dark story.

Almost every science fiction writer—from Jules Verne to Gene Roddenberry—owes a debt to Shelley. She was able to see clearly the lure and the danger of technology, and her foresight laid the groundwork for countless fantastical stories that followed. Frankenstein introduces the ever-popular ideas of the mad scientist, the experiment gone awry, and the devastating effects of psychological trauma. Mr. Hyde, Dr. Moreau, and even slasher Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th films should all remember Mary Shelley on Mother’s Day.

Frankenstein was first adapted for the stage in 1823, and since the dawn of film dozens of adaptations, sequels, and parodies have paid tribute to it. The constant reinvention of the Frankenstein story as it nears its two hundredth anniversary is a testament to its timelessness. As humankind grapples with the ethical and environmental issues related to nuclear power, fossil fuels, and genetic engineering, the novel’s warning is as relevant as it has ever been.

In Greek legend, Prometheus stole fire from the gods for human advancement. Shelley’s modern Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein, continues to represent the destruction that scientists try to avoid as well as the genius that artists strive to achieve.

The Life and Work of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in 1797 into the most celebrated intellectual and literary marriage of the day. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was among the most influential Enlightenment radicals, and wrote passionately and persuasively for the rights of women, most famously in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Her father, William Godwin, was a celebrated philosopher and writer who believed in man’s individual perfection and ability to reason. His best-known work, The Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness, was published in 1793.

Young Mary never knew her mother, who died of complications from her birth. Godwin, also raising Wollstonecraft’s other daughter, Fanny Imlay, needed a mother for his girls and found one in Mary Jane Clairmont, the unmarried mother of two. Clairmont was jealous of the attention paid to her notable stepdaughter and favored her own children, making life at home difficult for young Mary, who was often whipped for impertinence and found solace reading or taking her meals at her mother’s grave. Although she received no formal education, growing up in William Godwin’s house provided ample opportunities for learning, with its well-stocked library and frequent visits from the great minds of the time. When relations between his wife and daughter became intolerable, Godwin sent Mary to live with his friends the Baxters in Scotland in 1812, where she enjoyed her first taste of domestic harmony.

That year she briefly met the newly married Percy Bysshe Shelley, a noted young Romantic poet and ardent follower of Godwin’s philosophy. She returned to her father’s home in 1814, where Shelley was a frequent visitor. The two fell in love, and with Mary’s stepsister, Jane (later known as Claire) Clairmont, ran off to the Continent. The couple’s first child was born prematurely in 1815 and survived only a few weeks, and their second child was born in early 1816. Claire began an affair with another famous young poet, Lord Byron, and the four passed the unusually cold summer of 1816 together on the shores of Lake Geneva. They stayed by the fire talking and telling ghost stories, and Percy, Byron, and Mary decided to see who could write the most frightening tale. Mary’s tale became the basis for Frankenstein.

Percy’s wife, Harriet, drowned herself in November 1816, and Percy and Mary married in December. Mary published Frankenstein anonymously in 1818, but since Percy had written the Preface and the book was dedicated to his mentor William Godwin, he was suspected of being the book’s author. Tragedy followed the Shelleys as their third child, Clara, died in 1818 and their second child, William, died in 1819. Mary began writing her novel Mathilda in August 1819, and gave birth to her fourth child, Percy Florence, in November. She suffered a miscarriage in June 1822, and the following month Percy drowned when his boat sank in a storm in the Gulf of Spezia, near Genoa, leaving her a widow at the age of twenty-four.

Mary continued to write for the rest of her life. Her second novel, Valperga; or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca, found success after it was published in 1823. Other works of fiction include The Last Man (1826), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, a Romance (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner, a Novel (1837); Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal and Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France were published in 1835 and 1838, respectively. An account of her European travels with her surviving son in the 1840s was published in two volumes under the title Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 (1844). She lived with her son and his family until she died, in 1851, at the age of fifty-three.

Historical and Literary Context of Frankenstein

The Enlightenment

The eighteenth century was the Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, in Europe and America. Advances in science in the 1600s gave rise to the belief in natural law and confidence in human reason, which led thinkers of the 1700s to apply a scientific approach to matters of human importance including religion, society, politics, and economics. The movement was centered in the salons of Paris, coffeehouses of England, and universities of Germany.

Human rationality was seen to be in harmony with the universe, and belief in the importance of the individual was popular. Philosophers looked for universal truths to govern humanity and nature, and the sense of progress and perfectibility through rationality abounded. Human reason was considered the path to understanding the universe and improving the human condition, the result of which would be knowledge, freedom, and happiness.

The scientific approach to discovery was very successful in the fields of science and mathematics and spurred the search for rules that could define all areas of human experience. Rather than trusting innate goodness or blaming original sin for people’s behavior, Enlightenment thinkers crafted new theories about heredity and psychology. Whereas once the political state was viewed as a representation of divine order, new political thinkers began touting the rights of individuals and arguing for establishment of democracies.

Revolution: American, French, and Industrial

The revolutionary political theories born in Europe had a revolutionary impact in the New World. By the mid-1700s, after more than a century of imperialist rule, American colonists had developed customs and values that differed from English ways. Rather than relaxing its influence and accommodating those differences, the English tightened control by passing laws demanding tax revenue in the colonies without offering the colonials a voice in Parliament to represent their interests. To the colonial political leaders, this taxation without representation amounted to tyranny. The war for American independence broke out in 1775 and had almost reached a stalemate when assistance from France arrived in 1777. The fighting lasted four more years before, with the help of the French navy, the war ended with the British surrender at Yorktown. The Treaty of Paris recognized the United States of America in 1783, a country founded on the principles of liberty and democracy.

The success of the young democracy in America fired the imaginations of progressives in France who were eager to establish a representative government at home. France’s privileged classes—the clergy and the nobility—governed the country, while the productive class—the third estate—was heavily taxed to foot the bill. Outdated farming methods created food shortages, while extravagances in the court of King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, sparked outrage. The king was forced to order a general election of popular representatives who met in 1789 to present him with their complaints; instead, they declared themselves to be the National Assembly and vowed not to adjourn until a constitution had been written. Violence erupted as frustrated peasants lashed out at the ruling classes, forcing the nobility to abolish the feudal system and accept the Declaration of the Rights of Man. By 1791 a limited constitutional monarchy was created, but the Revolution was far from over. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was the rallying cry as the National Assembly suspended the monarchy and called for new elections to create a convention to draw up a new constitution. In 1792 the new Legislative Assembly abolished the monarchy and arrested, convicted, and executed the king for treason. Internal power struggles led to the creation not of a democracy but of a military dictatorship that tried to maintain order by executing everyone it considered a threat. In the span of about a year, from 1793 to 1794, thousands, including the queen, lost their heads to the guillotine in a period known as the Reign of Terror.

Turmoil was not contained within the country’s borders, however. France had declared war on Austria in 1792 and was busy in Europe fighting governments sympathetic to the deposed monarchy. The year 1795 saw another new constitution in France, followed in 1797 by another coup. In 1799, General Napoleon Bonaparte returned home from a military campaign in Egypt, seized control of France, and established the Consulate. Within a decade he had conquered Europe from Spain to the border of Russia for France, but the empire was short-lived. He went into exile in 1814 after losses at the hands of Britain, Prussia, and Spain, and returned only to be definitively defeated at Waterloo in 1815.

Another revolution, social and technological rather than political, was also under way at the turn of the nineteenth century. Mechanical innovations shifted the basis of England’s economy from agriculture to industry between 1750 and 1850. The development of steam power and a boom in the cotton textiles industry caused a population shift from rural to urban areas. New steam-powered railroads and ships broadened the market for England’s output. France’s Industrial Revolution took off in the 1830s, followed by Germany’s in the 1850s and the United States’ after the Civil War.

Laborers were more at the mercy of their employers than ever before, and working conditions in factories and mills were often brutal. Children and parents alike worked long hours six days a week in dangerous conditions for very low wages. It was clear that the economic philosophy of laissez-faire capitalism—the belief that market pressures alone would resolve production issues in capitalist economies—would not protect workers. Karl Marx and Frederich Engels published their Communist Manifesto as a solution to the tense relationship between labor and capital. They called for the more equitable distribution of the vast wealth being generated in the newly industrialized world. Their ideas, however, did not produce much political change until the early twentieth century. Throughout the nineteenth century, most of the Western world struggled to adjust to the impact of industrialization.

The Romantic Movement

Imbued with revolutionary spirit, the Romantic movement lasted from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. It was a rejection of the order, calm, and rationalism of the Enlightenment in favor of innovation and emotional expression. Although disappointed that the French Revolution was overshadowed by the horrors of the Reign of Terror and the egomania of Emperor Bonaparte, intellectuals of the day lauded the ideals of the Revolution and were fascinated by the possibility of radical social reformation. They were optimistic that humankind could create its own utopia, but the reality of events around them made them pessimistic about the darker side of human nature.

Romantic art is marked by an appreciation of the beauty of nature, the importance of self-examination, and the value of the creative spirit. Nationalism, folk culture, the exotic, and the supernatural were also topics of interest. To the Romantic artist, inspiration, intuition, and imagination were seen as divine sparks that pointed to Truth. The subjects of the literature of the Romantic movement focused on the quest for beauty; the faraway, the long-ago, and the lurid; escapism from contemporary problems; and nature as a source of knowledge, refuge, and divinity. To explore these subjects, Romantic writers stressed emotion and subjectivity, and often asked their readers to suspend their disbelief.

Romanticism valued individual voices, including those of women and common people. They tended to idealize the pastoral lives of farmers, shepherds, milkmaids, and other rustic people, figures who seemed to them to belong to a simpler, more wholesome, less cynical time when humankind lived in harmony with nature. The works of poet William Wordsworth—especially his Lyrical Ballads (1798)—provide good examples of this idealization. The Romantic sensibility also allowed women authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and the Brontë sisters to flourish.

Gothic Literature

The Romantic literature preoccupied with mystery, horror, and the supernatural is known as Gothic. The name is a reference to the barbaric Gothic tribes of the Middle Ages, or to medieval times in general with its castles, knights, and adventure. Gothic novels tended to feature brooding tones, remote settings, and mysterious events. The characters’ inner emotional lives receive a lot of attention, as does the struggle between good and evil. The style took its name from Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story, the first book identified as belonging to the genre. Published in 1764, it is set in a medieval society and features plenty of supernatural happenings. English writers Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, and Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe in the United States, are regarded as masters of the form. Among them, Shelley is known for using a contemporary setting and modern issues to illustrate the weird and terrible to evoke the reader’s fear of the darkness in human nature.

CHRONOLOGY OF MARY SHELLEY’S LIFE AND WORK

1797: William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft marry on March 29. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is born on August 30. Mary Wollstonecraft dies on September 10.

1801: William Godwin and Mary Jane Clairmont marry on December 21.

1808: Mary Godwin anonymously publishes her parody, Mounseer Nongtongpaw, with the Juvenile Library.

1812: Mary meets Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife, Harriet, at Mary’s home in November.

1814: Mary, her stepsister, Jane Clairmont, and Percy spend the summer traveling in Europe.

1815: Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley’s first child, a daughter, is born prematurely in February and dies in March.

1816: Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley’s son William is born in January. They travel to Switzerland to meet noted poet Lord Byron, and Mary begins work on Frankenstein. Mary’s half-sister commits suicide in October. Percy’s wife, Harriet, commits suicide in November. Percy and Mary are married in December.

1817: Mary and Percy’s daughter Clara is born in September. Mary and Percy publish their co-written History of a Six Weeks’ Tour in November.

1818: Frankenstein published. Clara dies in September.

1819: William Shelley dies in June. Mary begins work on Mathilda in August. Mary and Percy’s son Percy Florence is born in Florence in November.

1820: Mary writes mythological dramas Prosperine and Midas.

1822: Percy Shelley drowns in a shipwreck near Genoa in July.

1823: Mary Shelley’s novel Valperga; or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca is published in February. She returns to England in August.

1826: Mary publishes The Last Man in February.

1830: Mary publishes The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, a Romance in May.

1831: Mary publishes a revised edition of Frankenstein.

1835: Mary publishes Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, vol. I, in February, and Lodore in April.

1836: Mary’s father, William Godwin, dies in April.

1837: Mary publishes Falkner, a Novel in February.

1838: Mary publishes Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, vol. II, in August.

1851: Mary dies on February 1.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF FRANKENSTEIN

1750s: Benjamin Franklin establishes the electrical nature of lightning through experiments using kites.

1764: James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny for textile manufacture. Horace Walpole publishes The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story.

1769: James Watt patents his steam engine.

1771: Richard Arkwright produces the first spinning mill for cotton thread.

1774: Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes The Sorrows of Young Werther.

1776: The American Declaration of Independence is signed in July. Adam Smith publishes An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

1777: Antoine Laurent Lavoisier establishes the oxygen and nitrogen basis of air.

1781: Immanuel Kant publishes the Critique of Pure Reason.

1785: James Watt and Matthew Boulton install a steam engine in an English cotton factory.

1789: The storming of the Bastille begins the French Revolution.

1791: Thomas Paine publishes The Rights of Man, part I. Luigi Galvani publishes his paper on his theory of animal electricity.

1792: Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

1793: Reign of Terror begins in Paris.

1794: Robespierre is executed, ending the Reign of Terror.

1797: Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes Kubla Khan and the first version of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

1800: Alessandro Volta develops the electric battery.

1806: The first steam-driven textile mill opens in Manchester, England.

1813: Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice. Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes Queen Mab.

1814: The British navy develops the first steam-driven warship. George Stephenson invents the steam locomotive.

1818: James Blundell, a London surgeon, performs the first successful transfusion of human blood.

1825: The first railroad starts operation in England.

1832: England’s Parliament outlaws body-snatching for medical research.

1837: Samuel F. B. Morse makes a public demonstration of the electric telegraph in New York.

1840: Charles Darwin publishes Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle.

1847: Charlotte Brontë publishes Jane Eyre. Emily Brontë publishes Wuthering Heights. William Makepeace Thackeray publishes Vanity Fair.

1848: The first Women’s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

FRANKENSTEIN;

OR,

THE MODERN PROMETHEUS

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?——

PARADISE LOST.

TO

WILLIAM GODWIN,

AUTHOR OF Political Justice, Caleb Williams, &c.

THESE VOLUMES

ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE¹

THE EVENT on which this fiction is founded has been supposed, by Dr. Darwin,²

and some of the physiological writers of Germany, as not of impossible occurrence. I shall not be supposed as according the remotest degree of serious faith to such an imagination; yet, in assuming it as the basis of a work of fancy, I have not considered myself as merely weaving a series of supernatural terrors. The event on which the interest of the story depends is exempt from the disadvantages of a mere tale of spectres or enchantment. It was recommended by the novelty of the situations which it developes; and, however impossible as a physical fact, affords a point of view to the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield.

I have thus endeavoured to preserve the truth of the elementary principles of human nature, while I have not scrupled to innovate upon their combinations. The Iliad, the tragic poetry of Greece,—Shakespeare, in the Tempest and Midsummer Night’s Dream,—and most especially Milton, in Paradise Lost, conform to this rule; and the most humble novelist, who seeks to confer or receive amusement from his labours, may, without presumption, apply to prose fiction a licence, or rather a rule, from the adoption of which so many exquisite combinations of human feeling have resulted in the highest specimens of poetry.

The circumstance on which my story rests was suggested in casual conversation.³

It was commenced, partly as a source of amusement, and partly as an expedient for exercising any untried resources of mind. Other motives were mingled with these, as the work proceeded. I am by no means indifferent to the manner in which whatever moral tendencies exist in the sentiments or characters it contains shall affect the reader; yet my chief concern in this respect has been limited to the avoiding the enervating effects of the novels of the present day,⁴

and to the exhibition of the amiableness of domestic affection, and the excellence of universal virtue. The opinions which naturally spring from the character and situation of the hero are by no means to be conceived as existing always in my own conviction; nor is any inference justly to be drawn from the following pages as prejudicing any philosophical doctrine of whatever kind.

It is a subject also of additional interest to the author, that this story was begun in the majestic region where the scene is principally laid, and in society which cannot cease to be regretted. I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we crowded around a blazing wood fire, and occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts, which happened to fall into our hands. These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation. Two other friends (a tale from the pen of one of whom would be far more acceptable to the public than any thing I can ever hope to produce) and myself agreed to write each a story, founded on some supernatural occurrence.

The weather, however, suddenly became serene; and my two friends left me on a journey among the Alps, and lost, in the magnificent scenes which they present, all memory of their ghostly visions. The following tale is the only one which has been completed.

VOLUME I

LETTER I

To Mrs. Saville, England

St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17—.

You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I arrived here yesterday; and my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare, and increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking.

I am already far north of London; and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh,¹

I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves, and fills me with delight. Do you understand this feeling? This breeze, which has travelled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my day dreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible; its broad disk just skirting the horizon, and diffusing a perpetual splendour. There—for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators—there snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Its productions and features may be without example, as the phænomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death, and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. But, supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.

These reflections have dispelled the agitation with which I began my letter, and I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm²

which elevates me to heaven; for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose,—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. This expedition

Reviews for Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

[aspirit-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I didn't finish this story, perhaps because I'd tired of Victorian/Gothic fiction by the time I'd started reading this novel. Perhaps, it was because I hadn't expected a frame story about how the hedonistic Dr. Frankenstein created a person on whim, abandoned him, and refused to take responsibility even as his creation showed an infantile inability to move on from his traumatic rebirth without guidance.

Half-way through the story, I was rooting for someone to shove the doctor off a cliff and help Frankenstein's monster to become a self-sufficient man. I doubt the end is that cheerful.

There is a strong possibility that this story can be a trigger from adults who'd suffered neglect and abandonment in childhood. I appreciate that Shelley wrote a story that can elicit strong emotions through its plot, but it was too difficult to continue at times. I felt that too much of the story was told from Dr. Frankenstein's point of view (POV), making the section from the unnamed monster's POV more painful.

One day, I'll try reading all the way through with different expectations.

[gbelik_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I haven't read this since high school so it felt like I was reading it for the first time. There was so much more here than I remembered, both in plot and in ideas. Well worth a re-read.

[fredacochran · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read this in high school and loved it, I still love it, such a brilliant mine to come up with the characters and story.

[starla_aurora · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can understand all the love I hear for this book. It is writing is eloquent and you can fell the time period the author is from. Sadly, this extreme difference is noticed because of how many (terrible) writing styles there are in this day. I cant say much that is not already said about this book. If you are someone who enjoys very well written art, this is for you. Writing style is not what I judge highly, as long as I can feel what the characters are feeling and see what they have seen, I enjoy a book. As for the person who wrote that Hollywood got it terribly wrong, they did. I listened to this on audio book (amazing reader btw, George Guidall is brilliant -I loved his audio reading of The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm By: Nancy Farmer.

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It has taken me decades, but I finally read this classic horror novel. I have no excuse for the procrastination, but it turned out to be a nice surprise because it is much different from the movies, we are so familiar with. The films and vampire lore surrounding Dracula, seem to have followed closely to that novel, but Shelley's Frankenstein is a much more philosophical exploration, asking big questions about nature, mankind and our different responsibilities to each. This is even more impressive if you consider that the author was only eighteen when she wrote it. If you are still perched on a fence, over this one, reconsider, and give it a try. It also worked very well as an audiobook.

[schatzi_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure how I went this long without reading Frankenstein (or Dracula, which is still on my TBR list). Of course I'd heard about the story, and thought that I knew the basics of it (apparently I knew more about the movies than the book), and since it's October and Halloween is fast approaching, I thought that I'd find a creepy read.Instead, I found myself getting weepy over Frankenstein's creation. Frankenstein is a total dick, and I find it impossible to really feel anything for him except a vague disgust. Frankenstein spends years crafting his creation, and as SOON as his creation is animated, he is repulsed by him. Having brought this creation to life, with him knowing nothing about life or humans or anything, completely dependent on his creator for care, Frankenstein abandons him - FOR TWO YEARS. TWO FREAKING YEARS. Meanwhile, this poor creation is thrust into a world he does not and cannot possibly understand. He doesn't even understand hunger or thirst, much less how to speak or express his needs. All the creation longs for is acceptance; instead, he finds only horror. Every time he tries to help people in an attempt to win their favor, he's shot or beaten or hated. Is it any wonder that he becomes full of rage and turns that against his creator, whom he blames for bringing him to "life" and then abandoning him in a cruel world? I do feel sorry for the characters that are hurt because of their association with Frankenstein, but Frankenstein himself? Meh. In spite of never being formally educated, the creation is quite smart (having taught himself language and reason by observing, studying his neighbors circumspectly, and reading a few books he found abandoned) and totally calls out Frankenstein for his dickish behavior, and I enjoyed this part the most. And I hated how remorseful the creation was when Frankenstein dies, because I really wanted him to just say "fuck this hoe" and leave. Altogether, this wasn't what I expected it to be - and I'm glad for that. Three stars because I still feel we're suppose to sympathize a bit with Frankenstein, and I just can't. CANNOT.

[birdie.newborn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An important book. Mary Shelley is methodical, but also swept up in the Sturm-und-Drang emotionality of the period. Her characters have motivations, psychological depth, passions.

[ghr4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two hundred years after its publication in 1818 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein remains a powerful and relevant work with merits that go well beyond acknowledgement as the groundbreaking first science fiction novel. Across much of the plot this has the veneer of a standard gothic melodrama filled with malicious misdeeds and tragic deaths. But it is the strong themes and character dynamics teeming beneath the surface that make this a literary classic.At its core, Frankenstein is an allegory of man’s hubris, warning of the dire unforeseen consequences when man overextends his grasp, reaches too high and too far (beyond what is natural, and therefore supernatural), presuming to possess godlike capabilities. But at its heart, this is a tragic story of benevolence and basic human decency ironically embodied in Victor Frankenstein’s monstrous creation. He is thrust into life a true innocent, gentle and loving, but unable to receive those qualities in kind, and therefore he is transformed into malevolence – a vengeful murderous fiend, intent on the destruction of his creator, whom he views as ultimately responsible for his misery.Shelley’s character portraits of Victor and the monster, each intricately woven and the two then fully interwoven into a remarkable yin yang relationship, form the fabric of the story and propel the novel forward. Early on, as Victor dives headlong into his study of the unnatural, combing through the remains of the dead to combine the parts into unholy life, thirsting for knowledge that lies beyond man’s realm, he is insensible to the lush beauty of the natural world around him and distanced from interpersonal relationships. Victor’s work consumes him; he is oblivious to the seasonal beauties of nature: “Winter, spring, and summer passed away during my labours; but I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves – sights which before always yielded me supreme delight – so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation.” And after the creature is brought to life, Victor, horrified by his creation, suffers intense physical and psychological decline: palpitations, anxiety, nightmares, languor, and weakness. In karmic irony, Victor’s creation of life now seems to sap the life from him: an intriguing start to a zero-sum game that Shelley plays here.In order to explore the character and soul of the monster, Shelley is forced into a dicey plot device that strains the reader’s ability to suspend disbelief. The monster takes up secluded residence in a village hovel, and through observation of neighbors he learns of human emotions and interactions, and by reading books he gains a remarkable level of literacy, all in a rather short period of time. It is a contrivance, but a necessary one in order to allow him to relate his life from his point of view – and it works well, primarily due to the power of his emotions.After the monster’s murderous spree has begun, he meets up with Victor and early in their initial conversation sums up his plight: “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend…. I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity: but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me.”The monster then relates his experiences from the very beginning, but his was no natural birth; rather it was thrust to life from the void. Shelley masterfully conveys the confusion, haziness, and the “strange multiplicity of sensations” that seized him. As he tells his tale, it feels like the story of early man, indeed first man, learning as he goes: discovering fire, sensing hunger and the need for food, clothing, shelter. Due to his outsized frame and hideous appearance, he is an outcast, forced to view the world through a chink in a window of his hovel. As he studies a neighboring family he learns of the hardships of the everyman: poverty, hunger, and physical afflictions such as blindness – and thereby feels compassion for his fellow man, a compassion which will never be returned in kind. And from there springs the unstoppable murderous rage through which he vows to kill those most dear to Victor, wreaking vengeance and misery upon his creator. And so, the monster, stitched together from the dead and brought to life by Victor, has become a relentless killer. The dead regenerated into life with lives now taken in revenge, as the zero-sum game concludes.It must be noted that Shelley’s dialogue is often overwrought in telling the melodramatic aspects of the story: the kind of dialogue generally accompanied by intense hand-wringing and faint-hearted histrionics. This style was surely de rigueur in the Romantic Era, but it is simply treacly to the modern reader. Nevertheless, that distraction aside, Frankenstein is one of the most disturbing and moving novels ever written.

[nittnut · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've had Frankenstein on my to read list for years. This summer, my 14 yr. old niece was telling me about how it's her favorite book, so I decided to bump it up the pile and read it. I will be very interested to talk to her about this book. I really didn't like it. It is a miserable story and it makes me wonder whether anything could have been different, if, for example, Frankenstein had been kind to his monster? Everyone dies, everyone is unhappy, and it's so pathetically sad that any creepy factor gets totally lost. Sigh. I never thought I'd say that I liked Dracula better, but I did. I liked Dracula better.

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

 I had to read Frankenstein as required reading my senior year of high school and I loved it. It was just the right amount of suspense, creepiness, and some big questions of morality. Reading this one also clarified any misconceptions I had about who was who - Frankenstein is Frankenstein, not his monster, and he does some pretty insane things pushing the boundaries between life and death in his obsession to bring back the one he loves. I found this fascinating and couldn't put the book down. It, for the most part, is close to the level of my love for Dracula.

[bibliosk8er_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fairly quick read, and enjoyable.

[weeturtle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book surprised me. Neither Dr. Frankenstein or his monster were anything like what I expected from their pop-cultural portrayal. Dr. Frankenstein is far from a mad scientist, and the monster is not entirely a victim, or all that sympathetic in my opinion. How to view the pair seems to be very much at the discretion of the reader. Considered a cautionary tale about science going too far, that is also something for the reader to think about, and decide if that really was the case.On the actual text, this edition features a preface written by Percy Shelley. Don't let it scare you, Mary's writing is much easier to get through. ;). The actual text is shorter than it looks, with about 1/3rd of the book being supplemental material.

[fyrefly98 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Summary: Victor Frankenstein, the son of a wealthy Geneva family, was encouraged in his pursuit of the study of the natural sciences, and from his reading gleans the idea of creating life from non-life. So he builds a creature from human body parts, and animates it, and is then struck by the horror of what he's done, during which time the monster escapes. It soon learns that it is monstrous, and by hiding in a shed near a house with a family, learns language. It vows vengeance on Frankenstein, for creating it and abandoning it, and proceeds to kill those that Frankenstein loves, and to destroy his every chance for happiness.Review: This was a really fascinating read, and made for a surprisingly intense discussion at book club. I'd grown up with the pop-culture monster image in my head, and I knew enough to know that Frankenstein was the scientist, not the monster (although does his behavior make him the one that's truly monstrous? Discuss.), but I'd never before read the actual book. I was surprised how much of it doesn't match the Hollywood version, and by how much of it's from the monster's point of view - he's very articulate, which surprised me.The prose was really pretty dense - no point in saying once what you can say three times with a bunch of adjectives, I guess - and there was a lot of wailing and (metaphorical) gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, which got a little bit (a lot, actually) tiring. But I liked that it could be read on a number of levels - as a horror story, as a story about scientific ethics, as a story about the human condition and what it really means to be human, so that was all great. I also entertained myself as I was listening by seeing how far I could carry my theory that Frankenstein himself actually was murdering all those people - several times throughout the novel he goes into fits and has a fever from which he doesn't recover for several weeks, and when he does, someone else close to him is dead. It doesn't quite hold up throughout the entire story, but I thought it made an interesting possibility. 3.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: I didn't love it, but it's absolutely worth reading, both to get the real scoop on the mad-scientist cliche, and to provide lots of really interesting possibilities for debate with others.

[caterpillarqueenie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was good:)

[engpunk77 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Quality!

At one time this was my favorite classic novel--I've read it 4 times for 4 different classes and it's amazing how many different interpretations are out there regarding the nature of the monster! One professor believed he didn't exist at all--a figment of Victor's imagination or a manifestation of his oedipus complex. The fact that the men at the end witness the existence of the monster is an example of group hysteria. That's my favorite thesis and I wish I could remember the name of my professor that suggested it to give her credit!
A chilling and complex tale that examines the relationship between man and his creator, feelings of isolation and rejection, and monstrosity. A psychological thriller as much as a horror story. Recommended to lit majors especially!
By the way, this isn't my copy but one from a library book sale. Mine is so full of notes you can barely read the text anymore...

[khrystibooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was excellently written and very philosophical, and way depressing. It's also very worth reading.

[jbarringer-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The story of Frankenstein is in pop-culture enough that I knew pretty well what the book was about. What I didn't expect was how pathetic Frankenstein is, whining about everything and taking almost no responsibility for his own thoughts and actions. He gets awfully dramatic about his early education, as if he could really blame one conversation in his youth for his entire adult obsession over making his monster. Similarly, the monster seems incapable of taking responsibility for his choices and actions, even after he has become the articulate, intelligent creature he is when he starts killing people. I suppose if Frankenstein is a restrained sociopath, and Frankenstein is an expression of his repressed fantasies, maybe it makes some sense, but since Frankenstein narrates most of the story (in his whining style) I found this book to be a slow and not-so enjoyable read.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Good: The quality of this story, in terms of the ideas it contains and the philosophical musings it provokes, is far greater than that of the various movie versions.The Bad: The quality of the writing is not always equal to the quality of the story. This is very much a book written by a relatively young woman, trying to impress a literary scene with her abilities. The dialogue is very weak at times, and there are strange moments when Frankenstein collapses into a fever that last months and months, just to give his creation time to explore the world he finds himself in.The Ugly: Yes, the creature is ugly and terrible, but also very, very interesting. This thinking, moralising monster is much more worthy of our attention than the giant imbecile that haunts the cinema. Reading the story, one also wonders if the general public (or the press) has it right in describing genetically modified food as 'Frankenfoods'. The monster is only evil when he suffers the evil of society around him; he has an overwhelming capacity for love and for good.

[elfortunawe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those classics that everyone knows about but that few ever actually read. The actual content of the book is so different from what people believe they know about it that I can't help but think someone (probably long dead by now, and safe from prosecution) has played an elaborate prank on the world, for reasons which will likely remain forever lost to the gentle perturbations of passing time.The story has a nested, tripartite, epistolary structure, being presented as a collection of letters by a young polar explorer named Robert Walton to his sister in England. Within this is nestled the story of the eponymous Dr. Frankenstein, who is found by the explorer and his crew on the pack ice. And comfortably holstered in Dr. Frankenstein's tale is the narrative of the life of Frankenstein's Monster, who relates his story to Frankenstein in the Alps, prior to Walton's discovery of Frankenstein near the North Pole.Mary Shelley was a Romantic, and, like most Romantics, was rather prolix and agitated. The novel maintains a fairly constant emotional tone, leaving the reader feeling a bit drained after only a few pages. All 3 of the narrative voices seem to be constantly on the edge of some unbearable sensation. Sometimes it's joy, but for the vast majority of the work it's despondency, so it's best taken in small doses.It might be easy to take this famous story for granted, but the reader should remember what a novel blend of ideas this was for the time. It's influence has been so thorough that it can be difficult to detect it's presence, but it can be readily perceived in the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

[sarahlou2709 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

total classic book, one of the best books i have ever read and one of my favourite. when i read this i got goosebumps and shivers down my spine it terrified me but i could not put it down. brilliant book. must read for any horror lover.

[seraphinac.b4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In "Frankenstein", Victor Frankenstein, a student who attended a science university, discovers how to animate dead flesh. After many months of Victor's tedious work, his monster opens its hideous, yellow eyes. It sickens Victor, who then flees to his home town, Geneva. The creature, noticing he had been abandoned by his creator, seeks revenge by destroying everything that Frankenstein loves. The creature killed Victor's brother, William. A friend,Justine, is convicted for the murder and is executed. The creature being abhorred by everyone, needs a partner to love. He finds Victor and tells him to create another one. He agrees. After starting the gruesome work, he can no longer take it. The monster coming to this knowledge, confronts and tells him and that he will be with him on his wedding night. On the night of his marriage, in a villa by the lake, Victor hears a shill then a dreadful scream, rushing to Elizabeth, he finds her dead and a disfigured human form running on the shore. Victor followed this menace into the Arctic where it was spring and the ice was fragile. Both having a sled and dogs, tread onto the frozen ocean. The heavy monster fell through the ice which was cracked due to an earthquake, but he survived. Victor died on a boat going to England. The demon killed himself when Frankenstein died. This book was interesting and "terroriffic". I would call it historical fiction. I liked this book because I can connect to the places I've been to that were mentioned in this book. I have always wanted to read this book because people said the movie wasn't the same. I liked the way the author gave human emotions to the creature. On the other hand, it was a little bit too long and drawn out. I would recommend this to someone that likes to read suspenseful books.

[firecrackerscribe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book and can't believe how differently this story has been portrayed by American culture. Aside from the sheer disbelief that everyone who has not read the book has gotten the story so WRONG, I often found myself getting wrapped up in the eloquence of Shelley's words. The way she described some of the most mundane things was simply beautiful.

I loved the story within a story within a story. I felt it allowed us to not only see the characters as they saw themselves, but also as the respective narrator saw them. Though there were portions that I felt weren't necessary (Chapter 19 read like the most boring travel brochure ever) I appreciated most of it. Frankenstein's overall struggle and loss as a result of his "playing god" was heartbreaking.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Who doesn't know the plot of Frankdenstein? A scientist constructs a huge man and imbues him with the life force. The construct becomes a monster and turns on his creator. At least that's what I knew of the plot. Having finally listened to this audiobook I found that there was more to the story. At times I thought the level of detail was too much but I do admit that for the time of its writing it would have been ground-breaking.One of the things that I didn't know about the story is that the tale of the monster is told aboard a ship immured in the ice of the Arctic Ocean. An Englishman has followed his dream to explore the north. His ship is hailed by a man on an ice floe and they take him aboard. The man is Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist. He tells his tale of how he came to be on the ice. Having created a man who had become a monster he was determined to do battle with his creation until death, either his or the monster's. We learn how the monster had killed Frankenstein's brother, best friend and wife in revenge for being created as a thinking but loathsome creature. According to the monster he did not start out as a violent person. Instead he wanted to love and have friends but everyone who saw him was so repulsed by his looks that he grew to hate his creator. It does make one feel sorry for the monster.Frankenstein does merit a place on the 1001 list since it was the forerunner of the horror genre. Read it in that frame of mind and you will probably appreciate it.

[jasonpettus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the labelEssay #36: Frankenstein (1818), by Mary ShelleyThe story in a nutshell:To truly understand why Mary Shelley's 1818 Frankenstein first had the impact that it did, it's of crucial importance to understand the times in which it was written -- namely, the transitional years between the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of Romanticism (also known as the "Victorian Age," in that its span largely matches the long reign of England's Queen Victoria), a period in which for the first time, huge amounts of people were starting to question the validity of trying to live one's life through the long-held tenets of rationality, scientific distance and atheism, especially after the disaster known as the French Revolution that had just occurred two decades previous. Certainly this is the main idea driving Shelley's story, the tale of a young aspiring medical student in rural Switzerland, who for lack of knowing better grows up studying and believing in the ideas of the "natural philosophers" and "alchemists" of the 1600s, back when it was sincerely believed that man would eventually figure out a way to turn lead into gold and bring the dead back to life. Even after he gets into a decent university, then, young Victor Frankenstein still can't give up on his dreams of one day creating artificial life out of a collection of spare parts; and indeed, by his twenties he actually succeeds at such a thing, although having to build his particular human much larger than the norm so that he's able to grip all the tiny little pieces involved.But watching his creature move and speak for the first time, Frankenstein becomes horrified by the monstrous abomination against God he's made; and so in typical undergraduate fashion, he simply runs away and tries to pretend that the whole thing never happened, leaving the creature in the woods to fend for itself and just assuming that it'll soon be dead. But surprisingly, the creature ends up thriving as a survivalist, first learning how to speak by loitering on the edges of a rural village, then eavesdropping on the villagers' conversations to realize just how different he is than them. Despondent, the creature eventually tracks Frankenstein down and demands that he build a similarly oversized companion for him, which at first Frankenstein agrees to but then destroys halfway through, queasy at the thought of what kind of damage two such creatures could wreak; and it's at this point that the creature declares a lifelong program of vengeance against Frankenstein for so coldly abandoning him, eventually not only killing half a dozen of the student's acquaintances (including his brother, his father and his wife), but even framing Frankenstein for one of the murders. Incensed, Frankenstein decides to hunt down the creature for his own revenge; this then leads them on a globetrotting chase culminating in a final showdown near the north pole, witnessed by a crew of exploratory sailors which is why it is that we supposedly know of the tale today.The argument for it being a classic:Well, to begin with, there's the simple argument of what a huge influence this has had on popular culture at large, with there now existing thousands of projects that in one way or another riff on either Frankenstein's monster itself or Shelley's general concept of the "mad scientist." (Of course, let's not forget that the vast majority of these are actually riffs on James Whale's infamous 1931 film adaptation, which in reality has very little to do with the book itself -- for example, just look at the differing ways the book and movie deal with one of the story's most famous scenes... BOOK: "One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects." MOVIE: "Fire bad! FIRE BAD!!!") Perhaps the more compelling argument, then, is that it's a perfect record of a very important time in history, a story that very cleverly references not only the events that led to the era before it but also the reasons why that era was eventually rejected; because for those who don't know, the Great Age of Reason initially started with these so-called natural philosophers of the 1600s, who did nothing but observe and replicate the way God worked out in nature, but by the 1800s had evolved into "scientists" who were actively attempting to manipulate and change this natural environment, which more and more people began to see as a mockery of God instead of an exaltation of Him. Although trashed by Enlightenment-trained critics when first coming out, Frankenstein was eagerly eaten up by the gothic-obsessed public at large, making it as powerful a reflection of its time as The DaVinci Code is of ours.The argument against:Not much these days, although for a long time it was argued that Frankenstein is nothing more than a simple piece of lurid entertainment designed for overly dramatic housewives, and not fit for being debated as a piece of literature to begin with. (In fact, I think it telling that when the book was first published anonymously, criticism tended to focus on its actual quality, while after the author's identity became known it was roundly dismissed altogether as "the work of a girl.") But of course, as with all literature, time has a way of profoundly changing our opinion of what constitutes artistic "worth," making this not much of a valid argument anymore.My verdict:As you can imagine, today I quite solidly fall on the side of Frankenstein's fans, although I should give fair warning that this book is very much a product of its early-1800s times, and has a tendency during huge sections to ramble on and on in a kind of flowery prose style that modern ears are not used to. In fact, for those trying to learn more these days about artistic history, I think it's no coincidence that this book was published just a year after the death of Jane Austen, who many consider the last great Enlightenment author; in this respect, then, you can see Shelley as the first of the great Romantic authors, and the 1810s and '20s as the grand changing of the guard among mainstream society between the former age and the latter. The fact is that Romanticism was always as much about one's attitude and lifestyle as it was about the finished works themselves, the age that first posited the idea of the artist as a passionate, tortured soul, traits which Shelley possessed in spades; because for those who don't know, she was not only married to scandalous poet Percy Shelley and kept company with such infamous libertines as Lord Byron (inspiration for the Victorian Age's "Byronic hero"), but even the story itself was apparently inspired by a nightmare after a raucous evening of drugs and medieval German fairytales*, about as Romantic as Romanticism gets. (And let's not even get started on the the autobiographical elements this book supposedly contains, including the argument that the whole thing is a scathing criticism of the way Percy dealt with the miscarriage of their first child.) Creepy, supernatural, concerned mostly with the pouty emotions of moody geniuses, Frankenstein is literally a textbook example of the finest early Romanticism has to offer, and its passionate embrace by the general public was a sign of the sea-change society was to start experiencing just twenty years later.Is it a classic? Yes*And by the way, for a creepily fantastic look at what that night of drugs and fairytales might've looked like, do make sure to check out Ken Russell's 1986 Gothic, one of my absolutely favorite movies when I was a teen.

[jess_reads_books · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was my second time reading Frankenstein and each time I have struggled with the same issues. I find it very hard to get into the story and once I'm there the narrator is so unreliable I am constantly frustrated by him. I love that the actual story of Frankenstein is so different than what is known in pop culture. I only wish I loved the book more.

[wethewatched · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

They cry a lot in this book. Tears are gushed and shed. The characters weep, sometimes alone and sometimes together.

What is the source of all this misery? A lonely monster--and the miserable man who created him. The concept, which has been retold countless times in films, on TV and other media, still holds up. However, the style of writing will likely feel dated to the modern reader. Shelley can be a little over the top in conveying the misery of Frankenstein (that's the scientist, not the monster). As alluded to in my opening, there are so many sentences in this novel about crying, I began to chuckle with amusement--probably not the reaction that an author of horror seeks.

In addition, while Shelly writes gripping conflicts and arguments, the novel slows down considerably in lengthy passages where Frankenstein reflects on the loveliness of nature or dwells on the terrible situation of which the reader knows plenty already.

So is it scary? Well, I can see how it would be to readers at the time of its writing, but for those who enjoy scary movies and Stephen King stories, it might seem a bit tame.

Yes, it's a classic that will continue to be retold for many years to come. And for those interested in the history of the horror genre, it's certainly worth a read. However, if what you're really after is escapist chills and thrills, you might be better off watching The Walking Dead.

[amartino1208 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A scientist creates a creature who then terrorizes the nearby town. The monster learns about the town and the people in it to where he can understand and communicate. This teaches kids no matter ones appearance, we should learn to accept them for who they are and not judge them by what they look like.

[redpandabear · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book draws you in from the very beginning. It was the perfect Halloween read. I can see why it's one of the greats!

[john257hopper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is primarily a novel that sets out to create an atmosphere of fear, horror and despair and succeeds admirably in so doing. Mary Shelley must have had an appalling dream but she brought it to life in wonderful, evocative language and at such a young age (only 19 when she wrote the book). The monster is so different from the monster of the films. Here he is no lumbering, stupid brute, but an agile, resourceful and calculating creature who can and does conduct a deep and thoughtful dialogue with his creator when explaining his background story. But at the same time the monster carries out horrible murders of Frankenstein's nearest and dearest and these deaths are shocking when they happen. The science is almost non-existent and we never find out how Frankenstein creates the monster nor indeed what the monster really looks like other than being repulsively hideous. But that is not the purpose of the book, which is to set a mood and raise philosophical questions about the purpose of scientific discovery. And Mary Shelley does this brilliantly.

[amandrake_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Highly underrated by much of the population. Mary Shelly (at nineteen) wrote this complex novel full of historical and contemporary themes, including man's responsibility for his creations (weapons, Industrial Revolution), contemporary ideas of pregnancy (women giving birth to "monsters" because of bad thoughts), hubris (man taking the place of God by creating life), parental abandonment - all kinds of interesting questions.Good to read in a book group, as different people see very different things in it.