review of frankenstein novel

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Frankenstein, common sense media reviewers.

Classic of scientist haunted by his creation still timely.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

While Mary Shelley's often overwrought prose doesn

No sooner has teen Victor Frankenstein animated hi

Victor is surrounded by the most virtuous and nobl

There are of lots of dead bodies and plenty of dre

At one point in his troubles, Victor mentions that

Educational Value

While Mary Shelley's often overwrought prose doesn't stand the test of time so well, the issues she raises are at least as timely today as they were when she wrote the book. From its impassioned odes to Europe's beauty spots to its hymns to masters of study and scholarship, it offers a fair introduction to Western civilization as it existed at the beginning of the 19th century, and an opening for further study. Perhaps more important, it raises many questions about human nature, what causes people to behave as they do and leads to inexorably terrible consequences.

Positive Messages

No sooner has teen Victor Frankenstein animated his creation than he realizes he's made a terrible mistake, the dire consequences of which befall his loved ones for the rest of the book. Whereas few readers in real life are likely to commit his particular error of thinking it's a good idea to confer life on an inanimate being you've assembled from miscellaneous body parts, the larger caution to brilliant young innovators to consider the broader consequences of their inventions is all too timely.

Positive Role Models

Victor is surrounded by the most virtuous and noble of role models, including his parents and beloved "cousin" Elizabeth and good friend Henry, who are not only paragons themselves but never fail to come to his aid. Since he has been brought up surrounded by such values, he is all the more tortured by the horror he has unleashed upon them, and his inability to reveal it, and displays a degree of hand-wringing helplessness and spectacular denial that may seem strange to 21st century sensibilities. While we see many examples of people behaving nobly with regard to each other, including particularly touching examples seen through the monster's eyes, we also see the limits of that nobility -- no human is able to see past the monster's physical ugliness to the inner beauty he has managed to cultivate, even when he performs noble deeds, and all who see him flee or treat him violently.

Violence & Scariness

There are of lots of dead bodies and plenty of dread and foreboding, but no gore. All the monster's victims are strangled. But the subject matter is unavoidably horrific. Victor acknowledges torturing animals in the course of his research and building his creation from corpses. Rejected by his creator and other humans, the monster turns to killing innocent people simply because Victor loves them. There is also violence to innocent people at the hands of the justice system.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

At one point in his troubles, Victor mentions that he is taking laudanum in hopes of being able to sleep.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the 1818 novel that launched dozens of Hollywood horror movies bears little resemblance to any of them, but is quite creepy enough, flowery prose and all, and, historically speaking, went a long way toward inspiring a genre in which things go very badly for many reels. It's also a mainstay of high school honors literature classes and a good intro to both Gothic literature and science fiction. Its themes of delving into the dark arts will have allure for the Twilight set, while the science project run amok (and the arrogance of its creators) is a subject that remains all too timely. Bigotry alert: One of the subplots involves noble Christian characters who risk all to save a Muslim friend from certain death, and once safe he betrays them to an evil fate.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

Parents say (3)
Kids say (17)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Classic horror story shows truths about humanity

Nothing compares, what's the story.

Rescued from an ice floe near the North Pole, a dying Victor Frankenstein tells a British explorer a remarkable tale of his blighted life: After an idyllic childhood as the eldest son of a wealthy Swiss family, he's sent to Ingolstadt to pursue his university studies, where his brilliance and thirst for knowledge soon become apparent. All his skill and energy are soon devoted to his obsessive quest to create life and bestow it on an inanimate being, which he constructs from multiple corpses after many experiments that horrify even him. When he succeeds in animating his creature, he is appalled by what he's done and hides from him; the creature disappears, and only gradually does it become apparent that in creating this being and then rejecting him, Frankenstein has brought about the doom of all those who are dear to him.

Is It Any Good?

From the hindsight of 200 years, there's much to mock in this book, and the prose can be a slog by today's standards. But the story and its philosophical issues are no less compelling today than they were when Mary Shelley wrote FRANKENSTEIN, as evidenced by the fact that they recur in so many books, movies, and TV plots to this day.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Victor as the veritable poster child of the driven, arrogant genius with no thought for the consequences of his grand vision. What similar characters do you see in the world around you? How might he have chosen a wiser path?

One of the book's implicit what-ifs is what would have happened if a single human who saw the monster had been able to see past his physical ugliness to his inner nature; his conversation with the blind man is arguably the book's most poignant moment. Are people doomed to be this prejudiced, and thus doomed to have the victims of their prejudice act out against them?

Mary Shelley, who wrote the book during an idyllic sojourn with the bad boys of Romantic literature, Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, is a subject of interest (and scandal) herself, which may make her interesting to teens. How about learning more about her at the library or online?

This story has launched many versions and sequels. What would yours be?

Book Details

Author : Mary Shelley
Genre : Horror
Topics : Magic and Fantasy
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Simon & Brown
Publication date : September 9, 2011
Number of pages : 208
Last updated : July 14, 2023

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: A Comprehensive Review

Book cover of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

28 Nov Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: A Comprehensive Review

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Overview and Thesis

“Frankenstein” is not just a tale of horror but a profound exploration of human nature and the boundaries of scientific pursuit. It raises questions about creation, responsibility, and the moral limits of knowledge, making it as relevant today as it was in the 19th century.

Plot Summary of Frankenstein

The novel begins with Captain Robert Walton’s letters to his sister detailing his voyage to the North Pole. Here, he encounters Victor Frankenstein, a scientist obsessed with creating life. Frankenstein recounts his story to Walton, forming the novel’s main narrative.

Victor grew up in Geneva with a deep interest in science. At university, he becomes fascinated with reanimating life and secretly constructs a creature from body parts. Upon bringing it to life, he is horrified by its appearance and abandons it. The creature, intelligent and sensitive, seeks companionship but faces universal rejection and hatred. Its loneliness and suffering turn to vengeance against Victor, leading to a tragic chain of events that includes the deaths of Victor’s loved ones.

The creature demands Victor create a companion for him. Victor initially agrees but then destroys the female creature, fearing the consequences. The creature vows revenge, leading to the deaths of Victor’s bride and best friend. Victor pursues the creature to the Arctic, where he meets Walton and concludes his story. Victor dies, and the creature, remorseful, disappears into the cold wilderness, presumably to die.

Book Themes

Creation and Responsibility : Victor’s attempt to create life raises questions about the ethical limits of scientific pursuit and the responsibilities that come with creation.
Isolation and Companionship : The novel explores the pain of loneliness, both in Victor and his creature, highlighting the need for companionship and understanding.
Revenge and Justice : The cycle of revenge between Victor and the creature underscores the destructive nature of vengeance.
The Sublime Nature : Shelley vividly describes natural landscapes, reflecting the romantic era’s fascination with the sublime and its power over human emotions.

Character Descriptions

Victor Frankenstein : A brilliant scientist whose ambition leads him to create life, only to be horrified by the result.
The Creature : Victor’s creation, intelligent and emotional, but shunned for its appearance. Its desire for companionship and acceptance turns to a vengeful wrath.
Robert Walton : The captain whose letters frame the narrative, sharing similarities with Victor in ambition and isolation.
Narrative Structure : Shelley’s use of framed narratives adds depth and perspective to the story.
Language and Imagery : The novel’s eloquent language and vivid descriptions enhance its themes and emotional impact.
Pacing : Modern readers may find the pacing slow in parts, with extensive introspection and description.
Character Development : Some characters, especially female ones, are less developed and serve more as plot devices.

Literary Devices

Symbolism : The creature symbolizes the consequences of unchecked ambition and the alienation of those who are different.
Foreshadowing : Shelley uses foreshadowing to build tension and hint at future tragedies.

Audience Suitability

Ideal for readers interested in classic literature, science fiction, classic horror, and philosophical themes.

Comparisons

Comparable to works like “Dracula” by Bram Stoker in its gothic elements and to Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” in exploring scientific ethics.

Recommendation

Highly recommended for its timeless themes and contribution to literature.

Potential Test Questions and Answers

It draws a parallel between Victor’s overreaching ambition and Prometheus, who defied the gods by giving fire to humanity.
The creature begins as a blank slate, but its experiences of rejection and cruelty shape its actions, suggesting that behavior is influenced by treatment and environment, not inherent nature.

Book Details

ISBN: 978-0486282114
Page Count: 280 pages
Publication Date: 1818
Publisher: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones
Genre: Gothic novel, Science fiction
Reading Age: 15 and above

Awards and Accolades for Frankenstein

Recognized as a pioneering work in science fiction.
Continues to be studied for its literary

Adaptations

“Frankenstein” has been adapted and released as a movie or series many times over. Most recently, or yet to be released, is the movie, “Lisa Frankenstein,” to be released in 2024. The movie details:

“Lisa Frankenstein” is an upcoming American horror comedy film, slated for release on February 9, 2024. The movie, written by Diablo Cody and marking Zelda Williams’ feature-length directorial debut, offers a unique twist on the classic Frankenstein story. The plot is set in 1989 and revolves around a misunderstood teenage goth girl, Lisa Swallows. In a lightning storm, Lisa accidentally reanimates a handsome corpse from the Victorian era using a broken tanning machine in her garage. This act leads to a playfully horrific transformation, after which Lisa and her resurrected companion embark on a journey in search of true love, happiness, and some missing body parts.

The film stars Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino. The production of “Lisa Frankenstein” was completed in May 2023, and it is currently in post-production, with editing, music composition, and the addition of sound and visual effects underway.

Given the involvement of acclaimed talents like Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams, along with a promising cast, “Lisa Frankenstein” is anticipated to be a fresh and inventive addition to the Frankenstein adaptations, blending elements of horror and comedy with a modern twist on a timeless story.

More info on Frankenstein film adaptations are available on IMDB.com

About the Author, Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley, born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in 1797 in London, was a prominent figure in the Romantic literary movement. She was the daughter of philosopher William Godwin and feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, both of whom were well-known intellectuals of their time. This intellectual environment deeply influenced Shelley’s development and worldview.

Early Life and Influences

Born into a family of intellectuals, Shelley’s education was rich in literature and philosophy.
Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who died shortly after her birth, was a famous advocate for women’s rights, and her father, William Godwin, was a political philosopher and novelist.
Shelley received an unconventional education, where she had access to her father’s intellectual circle, which included many prominent thinkers of the time.

Personal Life and Marriage

Shelley’s life was marked by both passion and tragedy. At the age of sixteen, she eloped with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. This caused a scandal and estrangement from her father.
The couple faced numerous hardships, including financial difficulties and the death of two of their children.
After Percy Shelley’s untimely death in 1822, Mary Shelley focused on her writing and on raising their son, Percy Florence Shelley.

Literary Career

Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” when she was just eighteen, during a summer stay with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley in Geneva, where a challenge to write a ghost story led to the creation of this iconic work.
Besides “Frankenstein,” she wrote several other novels, including “The Last Man” (1826), a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, and “Lodore” (1835), which focused on the experiences of women in society.
Her works often reflect her belief in the Romantic ideals of emotion and individualism, and they explore themes of social justice, particularly the status of women.
Shelley’s work, particularly “Frankenstein,” has had a profound impact on literature and popular culture, inspiring countless adaptations and interpretations.
Her contributions to literature were not fully recognized during her lifetime, but she is now considered a pioneer in the genres of science fiction and horror, as well as an important figure in feminist literary history.

Other Best-Sellers and Awards

While none of Shelley’s other works achieved the fame of “Frankenstein,” several received critical acclaim.
“The Last Man” is considered a significant work in the science fiction genre.
“Mathilda,” though not published during her lifetime, has been recognized for its exploration of taboo subjects.

Mary Shelley’s life and work continue to be a subject of scholarly study and public interest, her narrative art and exploration of themes like creation, responsibility, and societal norms remaining relevant today.

Bookshop.org helps to support independent book sellers. Please purchase ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley on Bookshop.org. https://bookshop.org/a/1289/9780486282114

News, Notes, Talk

Read Percy Shelley’s review of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

As the story goes, eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley came up with the idea for Frankenstein one dreary summer night in 1816 while she and the poet Percy Shelley (her then lover, later husband), were vacationing in the Swiss Alps with Lord Byron, who suggested that they pass the time by each writing their own ghost story. “Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated,” mused Mary, and the rest is literary history.

When she unleashed Frankenstein upon the world two years later, she did so anonymously. Nevertheless, word got out that the book’s author was a woman ( gasp ), and the ensuing early reviews were incredibly critical. One particularly misogynistic critic wrote, “The writer of it is, we understand, a female; this is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the novel; but if our authoress can forget the gentleness of her sex, it is no reason why we should; and we shall therefore dismiss the novel without further comment.”

The year before it was released, in anticipation of the myopic critical backlash, Percy Shelley wrote a rave review (sadly unpublished until 1832, ten years after had Percy drowned in the Gulf of La Spezia) of his new wife’s remarkable debut.

Take note, literary couples: this is what supporting your spouse in their creative endeavors looks like.

Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.

“The novel of Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, is undoubtedly, as a mere story, one of the most original and complete productions of the age. We debate with ourselves in wonder as we read it, what could have been the series of thoughts, what could have been the peculiar experiences that awakened them, which conducted in the author’s mind, to the astonishing combination of motives and incidents and the startling catastrophe which compose this tale … it is conducted throughout with a firm and steady hand. The interest gradually accumulates, and advances towards the conclusion with the accelerated rapidity of a rock rolled down a mountain … We are held breathless with suspense and sympathy, and the heaping up of incident on incident, and the working of passion out of passion … The pathos is irresistible and deep … In this the direct moral of the book consists; and it is perhaps the most important, and of the most universal application, of any moral that can be enforced by example. Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked … It is impossible to read this dialogue—and indeed many other situations of a somewhat similar character—without feeling the heart suspend its pulsations with wonder, and the tears stream down the cheeks! … The general character of the tale indeed resembles nothing that ever preceded it … an exhibition of intellectual and imaginative power, which we think the reader will acknowledge has seldom been surpassed.”

–Percy Shelley, Athenaeum , November 10, 1832

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Frankenstein by mary shelley [a review].

Frankenstein is a novel that has never left the popular imagination since it was first published in 1818 and it probably never will. A dark gothic fantasy, an early science fiction, or a ‘precursor to the existential thriller’; its arresting power has captured every generation. Possibly it strikes at something disturbing in human nature.

Cover Image of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Robert Walton can barely contain his excitement. He spent his childhood dreaming of adventure. As he grew up it seemed a remote possibility. A career as a poet floundered. But an inheritance from a cousin has made his dream a reality.

There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand. I am practically industrious – painstaking; a workman to execute with perseverance and labour: – but besides this, there is a love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore.

Walton’s chosen target is the frozen north. He has managed to procure a ship and a crew. The only thing he wishes for is a companion who shares his thirst for adventure. The north is a region that promises to combine the extremes of danger and mystery. The source of magnetism, unknown astronomy, unexplored sea routes and unexplained lights is matched by the perils of freezing temperatures, ship-wrecking ice and utter isolation from any supply or chance of rescue. Writing to his sister, Margaret, from St Petersburg, Walton can hardly wait.

He is not long disappointed. Early in their adventure, their ship is boxed in by ice and they dare not risk proceeding further. And they may not be alone. Through the distant mist they think they can make out the eerie shape of a huge figure making his way on the ice on a sled pulled by a team of snow dogs. The next day they spy another man with a dog sled. This man, though, is clearly in need of rescue and the crew pick him up from the ice barely alive.

It takes several days to revive the man. Walton is pleased that he might have found a companion, but when Walton tells him the reason for his journey, Victor Frankenstein breaks down in tears at the thought that Walton is suffering from the same obsession that has ruined his life. Victor has a warning for Walton of the awful consequences of Walton’s ambition. This warning is Victor’s life story.

New readers to Frankenstein might be surprised by how many of their ideas of the story do not originate in the novel but from how the basic concept has been borrowed and reimagined in various other formats. Victor Frankenstein is not the ‘mad scientist’ of the images those words might conjure up. The use of electricity, the foraging from cemeteries, is hinted at but not given the weight of other tellings. And Victor’s creation is certainly not the zombie-like, brain-dead, monster but an articulate, thinking, feeling being that is human in all but appearance.

The novel’s first clever trick is its structure. If the story began with Victor Frankenstein telling you his life story, I suspect many readers would not venture far. By instead beginning with Robert Walton’s letters to his sister, the reader is instead dropped into the icy waters of the Arctic and made to tread water. Robert’s infectious description of his thirst for adventure, despite the dangers; his romantic desire for knowledge having been seduced by the mysteries of the far north where none have ventured before, effectively harpoon the reader. It also foreshadows and creates sympathy for Victor’s similar motivations to pursue his own tragic quest.

Another aspect that made Frankenstein a landmark was that its themes were far more sophisticated than the gothic novels that preceded it. While sharing elements with other classic plots types, Frankenstein did offer something new to readers. Most obvious is the nature of the monster itself. Traditional stories would have the reader siding with the ‘hero’ in their quest to defeat the monster. Frankenstein turns this around and forces us to ask who is the real ‘monster’ and who, if anyone, is the ‘hero’.

Victor struggles to articulate why he despises his creation other than to say he finds its appearance hideous. Although it is likely that the real reason Victor finds his creation so abhorrent is that it is a reminder of his obsession and folly; his turning away from the light. The prejudice towards the creature’s appearance is confirmed by the creature’s own experiences where he finds if it was not for his appearance he would be acceptable to society. The blatant prejudice towards the creature who then uses this to justify his turn to violence leaves the reader to wonder if there are any heroes at all in this novel or only monsters.

I think the part of the novel modern readers struggle with is Part 2. This is the part mostly narrated by the creature. He tells Victor who tells Robert, who tells his sister (and us) what became of him after Victor fled his laboratory and abandoned him. The creature relates how he learned to understand, speak and read language, how he learned to provide for himself, his encounters with fire and people and, most of all, about how he learned about his nature and how others perceive him. The characters in this Part allow us to compare and contrast the creature’s experience of rejection with others who are also exiled from society.

Modern readers may find this Part a bit strange, a bit unconvincing or a bit dull compared to the rest of the novel. Maurice Hindle in the Introduction to this Penguin Classics edition offers an explanation for what this Part is about.

Besides its role in the development of the plot, Hindle suggests this Part exemplifies Mary Shelley’s beliefs concerning theories of mind. In particular, the theories of the British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). In Locke’s view, the mind is a ‘blank slate’ or tabula rasa at birth. The development of the mind is therefore formed in response to experience. It is an argument supporting a strong role for nurture over nature for the development of the mind. As well as this philosophical take, the themes of isolation and alienation were prevalent in the Romantic era and are at work in this Part of the novel.

Putting aside the question of whether the modern science supports the argument (see Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate if you are interested), Mary Shelly is showing us here that, while the creature’s physical attributes have been designed by Victor, his non-physical attributes are a product of his experiences. From his acquiring of language to his moral outlook, these are the result of how he feels the world has treated him and what place, if any, the world has for him. If the creature is lacking in these regards, it may not be inherent in his nature as Victor seems to believe, but it is society, including Victor, that has responsibility. Again, we are found asking who is the real monster?

The origin story of Frankenstein is one that has become one of the most famous in literary mythology. This is the tale where, during a visit to see Lord Byron in Geneva, stuck indoors due to bad weather, those present occupied themselves by reading German ghost stories before Byron proposed a ghost story competition between them. And from this experience the then eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley created the germ of what became Frankenstein . There is of course more to the story than the famous anecdote.

Unlike many novels, with Frankenstein there is no mystery as to Mary Shelley’s influences and inspirations. This is because so much of her life is laid bare for us to see. Apart from being famous for her own achievements, she is also the child of a famous mother and father. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), was a philosopher, feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women . Wollstonecraft died shortly after giving birth to Mary Shelley due to complications with the birth. Mary Shelley’s father was the political philosopher William Godwin (1756-1836) and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), was a writer who came to be regarded as one of the major English Romantic poets.

We therefore have a great deal of information about Mary Shelley’s life. We know where she lived and travelled and with whom, what she was reading and writing and who were her visitors at home and others in her orbit. Hindle argues that features of Mary Shelley’s biographical, philosophical and literary life feature in the novel.

For example, Mary was present when Samuel Taylor Coleridge visited and read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , which influenced Frankenstein . Another visitor to the Godwin house was Humphrey Davy, a pioneer of electrochemistry and an advocate for the unlimited powers of science, much admired by Percy Shelley. Byron and Percy Shelley had been discussing the possibilities of animating life, the experiments of Erasmus Darwin and galvanism during the time in Geneva when Mary Shelley was coming up with her ghost story.

We also know a lot about what Mary Shelley was reading. She was a fan of Samuel Richardson, Madame de Genlis and read a lot of gothic novels, whose influences can be seen in Frankenstein . More philosophically, she also heavily read Milton, Rousseau and the aforementioned Locke. Again, the influence of their political, religious and existential ideas are evident in the novel. Milton and Paradise Lost was revered in the Godwin house and Hindle suggests the creature in Frankenstein turns from being like Milton’s Adam to Milton’s Satan.

But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which had fallen into my hands, as a true history. It moved every feeling of wonder and awe, that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting. I often referred the several situations, as their similarity struck me, to my own. Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his creator; he was allowed to converse with and acquire knowledge from beings of a superior nature: but I was wretched, helpless, and alone. Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; For often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the better goal of envy rose within me.

Percy Shelley’s influence in the novel also can’t escape mention. It has been suggested that Victor Frankenstein is at least partly based on Mary Shelley’s husband. They share an interest in science that runs to an obsession and a faith in Man’s unlimited creative powers. The theory that Percy is the real author of Frankenstein (the novel was originally published anonymously) has never faded no matter how unreasonable the claim seems. If anything, Frankenstein is more reliably interpreted as a critique of Percy’s beliefs and character, showing the dark side of where it might eventually lead. To me, it would require a level of self-awareness that does not credit him as the author of the novel.

I did once hear that Mary Shelley denied that Frankenstein was about Man’s relationship with God but that may not be true and I cannot find a source for that now. In any case, it is an interpretation that is difficult to completely reject given that the story concerns a battle between Creator and Creation with many references to Adam. Victor rejects his creation and this rejection is keenly felt by the creature who asks like a child to a distant father (something Mary Shelley also experienced) shouldn’t the Creator have some responsibility for the happiness and wellbeing of his creation?

I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural Lord and king, if thou wilt also performed thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to who thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. 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. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.

The other common interpretation of Frankenstein is that it is a warning against the pursuit of scientific knowledge and the powers it unleashes. The subtitle of the novel is ‘The Modern Prometheus’. In classical mythology, Prometheus steals fire from the gods and gifts it to mankind. Like a literal divine spark his act sets humans on a path towards technology and civilisation. Prometheus is punished by the gods for his act and is therefore a saviour and martyr for mankind.

Prometheus Bound by the ancient Greek tragedian Aechylus is the most famous version of the myth. Both Byron and Percy Shelley were admirers of it and wrote their own Prometheus works. But as Hindle points out, the Greek and Roman versions of the Prometheus story differ. A comparison between the two again makes one wonder if he is a ‘hero’. Hindle suggests Mary Shelley combines the two in Frankenstein .

‘The ancient teachers of the science,’ said he, ‘promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promised very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted, that the elixir of life is a chimaera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pour over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens: they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.’ Such were the professor’s words – rather let me say such the words of the fate – enounced to destroy me. As he went on I felt as if my soul were grappling with a palpable enemy; one by one the various keys were touched which formed the mechanism of my being: chord after chord was sounded, and soon my mind was filled with one thought, one conception, one purpose. So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein, – more, far more, will I achieve: treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.

Modern audiences are familiar with the theme that danger lies in the pursuit of knowledge. If fictional takes are insufficient we have plenty of examples from history that can be interpreted that way. However, it can be reasonably argued that this is not Mary Shelley’s message in Frankenstein . Rather, the tragedy is the consequence of narrowmindedness. It is not Victor’s ambition that is his undoing, even if he sometimes seems to think so himself. Rather, it is that in his obsession he lost perspective, balance and his moral centre.

A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquilly. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind. If this rule were always observed; if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country; America would have been discovered more gradually; and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed.

Victor’s attempt to be a creator of new life is in a sense blasphemous but Mary Shelley is not making an argument in favour of a return to traditional Christianity either. It seems more inclined to find a new moral perspective. One for which there is an urgent need in the face of the new powers technology is creating.

The Enlightenment period in which Frankenstein was written was one of great transition – ‘between doubt and Darwin’. In 1828, ten years after Frankenstein was first published, Friedrich Wöhler reported his synthesis of urea – a substance produced by living organisms – using entirely inorganic ingredients without any need to involve a “vital force”. In 1840 Justus von Liebig published his text on organic chemistry arguing that plants absorb carbon from the atmosphere and nutrients from non-organic materials in the soil, further destroying the idea of the vital force. These results were very controversial at the time. It had been assumed there was a strong separation between the materials of the living and the non-living world.

Frankenstein captures the excitement and fears of an era where previous certainties had crumbled to dust leaving the unsettling feeling of being untethered to any physical, mental, spiritual or moral reality.

I first read Frankenstein probably almost twenty years ago and declared it one of my favourite books. In recent years I have decided to reread these favourites and some others that I believe deserve another look. The results have been up and down. Rereading All Quiet on the Western Front saw me demote it from my favourites list. On the other hand, rereading Catch-22 affirmed its place on my favourites list and as probably my favourite novel overall.

Reading Frankenstein a second time, I am not sure how to place it. I probably did not enjoy it as much as I did the first time. That Part 2 is a bit puzzling and difficult. But what Frankenstein does well it does exceptionally well. I am thinking here of the intrigue and anticipation it builds in the Part 1 and a few specific scenes that stick in the memory. The turns in plot that I had not remembered from my first experience still had the power to surprise me. One in particular turns the plot in unexpected ways.

Reading it again, I also love Mary Shelley’s descriptive writing. She gives a real sense of time and place to the reader that is evocative and makes for some of the powerful scenes I mentioned. Despite the fact that the use of the pathetic fallacy was a familiar trope in gothic novels, some contemporary novels I have read recently have been disappointingly deficient in this regard. Mary Shelley really puts them to shame.

Frankenstein has lost none of its power to captivate and horrify. I also doubt whether we will ever lose our ability to reanimate it to suit our circumstances. In our post-Enlightenment world it continues to agitate us and remind us of our worst fears.

The 100 best novels: No 8 – Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)

T he summer of 1816 was a washout. After the cataclysmic April 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, part of what is now Indonesia, the world's weather turned cold, wet and miserable. In a holiday villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, a young English poet and his lover, the guests of another poet, discouraged from outdoor pursuits, sat discussing the hideousness of nature and speculating about the fashionable subject of "galvanism". Was it possible to reanimate a corpse?

The villa was Byron's. The other poet was Shelley. His future wife, 19-year-old Mary Shelley (nee Godwin), who had recently lost a premature baby, was in distress. When Byron, inspired by some fireside readings of supernatural tales, suggested that each member of the party should write a ghost story to pass the time, there could scarcely have been a more propitious set of circumstances for the creation of the gothic and romantic classic called Frankenstein , the novel that some claim as the beginnings of science fiction and others as a masterpiece of horror and the macabre. Actually, it's both more and less than such labels might suggest.

At first, Mary Shelley fretted about meeting Byron's challenge. Then, she said, she had a dream about a scientist who "galvanises" life from the bones he has collected in charnel houses: "I saw – with shut eyes, but acute mental vision – I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion."

The scientist Victor Frankenstein, then, is the author of the monster that has come in popular culture to bear his name. Frankenstein's story – immortalised in theatre and cinema – is framed by the correspondence of Captain Robert Walton, an Arctic explorer who, having rescued the unhappy scientist from the polar wastes, begins to record his extraordinary story. We hear how the young student Victor Frankenstein tries to create life: "By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light," he says, "I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs."

Unforgettably, Frankenstein has unleashed forces beyond his control, setting in motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings him to the brink of madness. Finally, Victor tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything he loves, and the tale becomes a story of friendship, hubris and horror. Frankenstein's narration, the core of Shelley's tale, culminates in the scientist's desperate pursuit of his monstrous creation to the North Pole. The novel ends with the destruction of both Frankenstein and his creature, "lost in darkness".

The subtitle of Frankenstein is "the modern Prometheus", a reference to the Titan of Greek mythology who was first instructed by Zeus to create mankind. This is the dominant source in a book that is also heavily influenced by Paradise Lost and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner . Mary Shelley, whose mother was the champion of women's rights, Mary Wollstonecraft, also makes frequent reference to ideas of motherhood and creation. The main theme of the book, however, is the ways in which man manipulates his power, through science, to pervert his own destiny.

Plainly, Frankenstein is rather different from, and much more complex than, its subsequent reinterpretations. The first reviews were mixed, attacking what one called a "disgusting absurdity". But the archetypal story of a monstrous, supernatural creation (cf Bram Stoker's Dracula , Wilde's Dorian Gray and Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde ) instantly caught readers' imaginations. The novel was adapted for the stage as early as 1822 and Walter Scott saluted "the author's original genius and happy power of expression". It has never been out of print; a new audiobook version, read by Dan Stevens, has just been released by Audible Inc, a subsidiary of Amazon.

A Note on the Text:

The first edition of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published anonymously in three volumes by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones on 1 January 1818. A second edition appeared in 1822 to cash in on the success of a stage version, Presumption . A third edition, extensively revised, came out in 1831. Here, Mary Shelley pays touching tribute to her late husband, "my companion who, in this world, I shall never see more", and reveals that the first preface to the novel was actually written by Shelley himself. This is the text that is usually followed today.

Other Mary Shelley titles:

The Last Man , a dystopia, published in 1826, describes England as a republic and has the human race being destroyed by plague. Shelley also explores the theme of the noble savage in Lodore (1835). Her children's story Maurice , written in 1820, was rediscovered in 1997 and republished in 1998.

Mary Shelley
The 100 best novels

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On frankenstein , a monster of a book, arts & culture.

The art and life of Mark di Suvero

Behind the scenes of James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein .

In 1818, it probably would have been more shocking to have a novel about a Victoria Frankenstein doing perfectly normal, boring science than one about Victor making a hodgepodge of body parts come to life. In more than one way, Victor Frankenstein embodies the double contradiction at the core of the mad scientist outlined in the previous installment of this essay . First paradox: though deprived of reason (mad), this character is also the ultimate embodiment of reason (a scientist). Second paradox: even though mad scientists are always outcasts who rebel against the establishment, they tend to represent that very establishment—they are, for the most part, well-to-do white men.

True enough, every now and then, Frankenstein looks beyond Europe—for example, in search of a habitat for its monstrous offspring and sedatives that may quiet the nightmare of reason. After his first nervous breakdown, following the creation of the monster, Victor, saturated with Western knowledge, “found not only instruction but consolation in the works of the orientalists.” Together with his friend, Clerval, he learns Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew and reads the texts in the original:

Their melancholy is soothing, and their joy elevating to a degree I never experienced in studying the authors of any other country. When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a warm sun and garden of roses,—in the smiles and frowns of a fair enemy, and the fire that consumes your own heart. How different from the manly and heroical poetry of Greece and Rome.

Toward the end of the novel, we learn that while Victor was reading the “orientalists,” the creature, abandoned by his creator, roamed the countryside. He found refuge in a hovel next to a cottage and, from his hideout, eavesdropped on the family of poor cottagers, the De Laceys. This French family is involved with “a treacherous Turk” and his daughter, Safie, “a lovely Arabian.” The decisive aspect of this nested narrative is that Safie is a device to justify the monster’s acquisition of language. He learns French along with her as he listens in on the De Laceys’ lessons: “Presently I found, by the frequent recurrence of one sound which [Safie] repeated after [the cottagers], that she was endeavoring to learn their language; and the idea instantly occurred to me, that I should make use of the same instructions to the same end.” The languageless monster is associated with this “Oriental” character—though not for long: “I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian,” the creature brags a few paragraphs later. The symmetry is remarkable: while Victor, having “conceived a violent antipathy even to the name of natural philosophy” and wanting to “fly from reflection,” moves away from European reason by learning Arabic, the monster (through his Arabian proxy) moves toward it by learning French.

Still, despite this flirtation with other cultures, both the creator and the creature, for all his Caliban-esque echoes, are European—Swiss and German, respectively, though in the 1831 version, Shelley turns Victor into a Neapolitan, which may help to make him a tad more “exotic” and meridional (compared to a Genevan). While Victor seeks solace by looking east, the monster turns south. Begging Victor to create a mate for him, the creature argues, “If you consent, neither you nor any other human being shall ever see us again; I will go to the vast wilds of South America … My companion will be of the same nature as myself … We shall make our bed of dried leaves; the sun will shine on us as on man and will ripen our food.”

South America, the potential breeding ground for monsters, is presented like the Eden this Adam never knew. Shelley may have been thinking of Argentina’s vast pampas and titanic glaciers as a shelter for the oversize monster and his family—after all, according to some, Patagonia seems to derive either from Patagón (a huge monster in Primaleón , a chivalric novel from 1512) or from patón , referring to the giant feet the Tehuelche people were supposed to have. True or false, these etymologies nicely echo Victor’s mentions of the creature’s “huge step on the white plain. The reality, however, is that around the time the novel was published, rather than being a prelapsarian Arcadia, most of South America was involved in wars of independence and efforts to constitute sovereign states. That these struggles were fueled, in no small measure, by the philosophy of the Enlightenment and one of its creatures, the French Revolution (whose links to Shelley’s novel have often been pointed out), gives the project of exporting this monster of reason to Latin America an unintentionally ironic twist.

These glances east and south are some of Frankenstein ’s timid attempts at escaping the general sense of normalcy the mad scientist is supposed to denounce. But for all the bizarreness of Victor’s scientific method and its results, he remains profoundly and unshakably conventional. Consider that most crucial of scenes, where Victor witnesses the creature coming to life:

How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath … The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body … but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room … Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.

After two years of toil and many more of research, after laboring with corpses and body parts, after having discovered the mystery of life itself, Victor witnesses the awesome miracle of his creature opening its eyes to the world and finds it … “ugly”? The frivolity of his reaction is stunning. Somehow, the shallowest aesthetic values suddenly outweigh the biological marvel in front of him. Victor’s offended sense of normalcy prevails over the scientific curiosity that has ruled his entire life. And there is no ethical or even religious component to his “horror and disgust”; he simply finds the monster unsightly and is “unable to endure the aspect of the being [he] had created.” Indeed, “the different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.” The reality of the creature outdoes the madness of the creator’s designs. If there was ever something “abnormal” about Victor, the monster normalizes him. It is the monster (rather than its creator) who questions the established order. And this is the point where Frankenstein stands out as a unique, freakishly exceptional book.

Frankenstein not only is a book about a monster; it is also a monster of a book. Like the creature, it is made up of incongruent bits and pieces stitched up together. If “the dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of [Victor’s] materials,” something similar can be said of Mary Shelley’s process. The text is a wonderful monstrosity composed of several genres, texts, and voices patched up into one weird creature. The book begins as an epistolary narrative (with the letters that Captain Walton, headed for the North Pole, writes to his famously voiceless sister), then it becomes a journal with dated entries, and then a story, transcribed by Walton, organized in chapters, like a novel, edited by Victor himself. “Frankenstein discovered that I made notes concerning his history: he asked me to see them, and then himself corrected and augmented them in many places,” Walton reveals in the final chapter. (“Since you have preserved my narration … I would not that a mutilated one should go down to posterity,” Victor says, furthering the comparison between the text and a chopped-up body.) Frame narratives multiply: Walton’s story contains Frankenstein’s, which contains the creature’s—whose long tale is quoted uninterruptedly for several chapters—which contains yet other stories, such as the ordeals of the De Lacey family, the cottagers the monster overhears from his hovel. Polyphony is a form of monstrosity—one voice made of many.

Within each one of these stories and voices, several genres coexist: fictional autobiography, philosophical treatise, melodrama, horror, gothic, all of them sutured with “wonderful and sublime” lyric threads that sometimes unravel into strands of what feels like travel-guidebook prose. And to further compare the book to the monster, Shelley, of course, helped create the genre of science fiction, a radically new creature composed, again, of paradoxical parts.

Furthermore, the monster and the novel have the same birth. Here is how Victor first comes into “natural philosophy,” the “genius that will regulate [his] fate” and lead to the creation of the monster: “When I was thirteen years of age, we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon: the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa.”

And here is Mary Shelley in her 1831 introduction to the novel, telling the famous story about the book’s inception in Villa Diodati, when she was nineteen years old: “In the summer of 1816, we visited Switzerland, and became the neighbours of Lord Byron … But it proved a wet, ungenial summer, and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house. Some volumes of ghost stories , translated from the German into French, fell into our hands.”

Proper names and contextual details aside, the resemblance of these passages, both in content and structure, is striking. In Frankenstein , randomly reading Agrippa during a bout of bad weather breeds in Victor “contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy” and makes him long for the time “when the masters of the science sought immortality and power.” This, in turn, will lead to the creation of the monster. In a similar fashion, the volume of ghost stories picked up haphazardly during “the summer that never was” inspires Lord Byron to challenge Percy and Mary Shelley and John Polidori to “each write a ghost story.” As is well-known, “his proposition was acceded to.” The result was Frankenstein (with Polidori’s “The Vampyre” as a bonus). Victor and Mary—two teenagers on a spoiled vacation, reading a book that falls into their hands by chance. This is the starting point for both the monster and the novel.

Frankenstein ’s main themes are well-known: the hubris of the creator, the friendlessness of the creature, the inversion of hierarchies between them. (“You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!” the monster tells Victor.) Still, there is a good reason why this mad scientist and his many clones have remained a productive figure for centuries. At any given historical moment, this character offers a glimpse into the anxieties and hopes conjured up by knowledge and technology. Whether optimistic or apocalyptic, traced to their source, most of these narratives lead to one fundamental question: What does it mean to be human? Victor Frankenstein’s creature: “And what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant … I was not even of the same nature as man … When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned? … What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.”

A radical form of exception, a monster is a creature made of the combination of disparate parts to become “something out of the common order of nature,” according to Samuel Johnson’s definition in his Dictionary . In a sense, then, humans are the first monsters: thinking beasts. None of the bizarre splices and hybrids in the history of literature, from centaurs to cyborgs, comes even close to our own monstrous constitution, where reason coexists with the darkest instincts. And since we are doomed to not only to live with this “thorough and primitive duality,” as Henry Jekyll puts it, but also to be aware of it at all times, these fictions of mad geniuses and their offspring may be some of the stories we tell ourselves to grapple with it.

Part 1 of this essay, on mad scientists throughout the canon of the genre, can be read here .

Hernan Diaz is the managing editor of RHM. His first novel, In the Distance , was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – Book Review

The book cover of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Warning – possible spoilers! (Tiny ones, though, and I’ll try to avoid even those; I swear I’ll give my best not to ruin it for you… :-))

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – Book Details

TITLE – Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

AUTHOR – Mary Shelley

GENRE – classic , gothic , science fiction , fantasy , dark academia

YEAR PUBLISHED – 1818

PAGE COUNT – 269

MY RATING – 4 of 5

RATED ON GOODREADS – 3.86 of 5

Initial Thoughts

Monsters are amongst my favorite fantasy creatures. Plus I love reading classics. But when I first read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I have to admit – I didn’t know how to appreciate it. I think a lot of it had to do with my expectations back then. I expected a Hollywood-style monster story and got instead an existential tragedy.

I had never even seen a proper adaptation before. Only short pieces in which a crazy scientist manages to bring a monster to life. The scientist had a vibe of an 18th-century version of Sheldon Cooper on crack. And the monster looked and sounded a lot like Lurch.

That was literally all I knew about this incredibly innovative, imaginative and immersive classic. In fact, Frankenstein is frequently referred to as the world’s first science fiction novel.

Apparently, when she was 18, Mary, her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, their friend Lord Byron and a few other people were traveling Europe. On a boring rainy day, the group decided to pass the time by competing in who can write the creepiest ghost story.

Mary based her story on a nightmare that occurred to her after hearing her husband and Lord Byron talking about the possibility of reanimation and bringing the dead back to life. In the dream, she saw a man creating a horrific creature and regretting it instantly…

What Is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley All About

Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.

Victor Frankenstein is an ambitious, enthusiastic, brilliant young scientist obsessed with uncovering the secrets of life and death. Determined to accomplish what no man had ever done before, he manages to give life to a creature he has created himself using parts of dead bodies.

However, faced with the result of his experiment, he instantly regrets what he’s done. The monster looks so grotesque and unnatural – even his creator doesn’t want to have anything to do with it.

But, no matter how repelling, the monster has many human characteristics. Including the need for love, friendship and belonging. As well as the impulse to punish rejection with anger and violence.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – My Review

The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.

If you want to get incredibly confused, indecisive about whose side you are on, ultimately realizing you do not have anything to compare this story with to be able judge the characters correctly – then this book is exactly for you!

As I mentioned, Frankenstein was not at all what I expected. It was much less a fantasy and creating a monster and much more a story about making an irrevocable mistake, learning to live with the guilt and trying to fix what can be fixed.

I loved how strong and resonating the moral of the story was. The consequences were brutal. And on the second read, I was more able to appreciate the thought behind this novel. It’s uniqueness and foreshadowing. The huge existential questions it covers. Well, touches on, really. But still.

At first, I didn’t like how perfect the Frankenstein family was portrayed. But the more I read, the more I appreciated the contrast between their kindness and innocence and the terror of Victor’s creation.

Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest? […] Of what materials was I made, that I could thus resist so many shocks, which, like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture? But I was doomed to live.

Amongst the other things I liked was the writing style. Not the most accessible book I’ve ever read, you can definitely feel it was written in another century. But it was beautiful and it almost felt like poetry at times, which created a perfect balance to the horrifying events described.

And of course, what I liked the most was the story itself. So original. So imaginative. So thrilling. Unlike anything I’ve ever read.

Victor’s thirst for knowledge was almost palpable. His curiosity, delight in front of the unknown. His first experience with death and sorrow. Frustration when facing an unsolvable riddle. The need to push the boundaries.

Plus the appeal of the supernatural, just all the possibilities it could offer. And also a certain level of serendipity.

It all created a compulsive read.

It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.

However, the first time I read Frankenstein, I felt like the main story – the story about a man who, in an attempt to create life, created a monster – wasn’t given enough space. The book is not very long, and a lot of it goes on descriptions of nature, Frankenstein’s relationship with his family and his inner monologues.

I expected a bit more about how he created a monster and how they both dealt with that instead of endless regret monologues. Plus, I assumed Frankenstein had a better, more direct and specific motive for creating the monster than – I really really wanted to know.

All that said, this was a brilliant read that resonated with me and made me think about it often until I finally caved and grabbed it again.

Regret and guilt are at the very center of the book. Lots of deep thoughts to make you question what you thought you knew about life, and creation, and loneliness. About looking for a purpose and not finding one.

The monster’s story is so tragic.

It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.

Mary Shelley’s story of Frankenstein and his monster became one of my favorite stories ever. It was a great pleasure to finally get into the origins of a creature we all have heard of, that became an inspiration for so many movies, art, as well as other stories and characters.

I will be adding this book to my recommendations for the best classics for fall (which I hope will be done soon 😅).

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(2) comments.

It is so interesting to learn a little bit behind the author’s inspiration for this book! I can believe that such a tale would come out of a nightmare. I loved reading about what you liked and did not like; it is always interesting to see how writers approach concepts!

Thanks so much! ❤️️ Did you know there’s also a movie Mary Shelley from 2017? Great cast. I’m pretty sure it focuses on the years when Frankenstein was created. I still didn’t get a chance to watch it, but I plan to ASAP…

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Book Review)

March 14, 2018 By Ben McEvoy

Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley is one of the most thrilling, haunting, and poignant books I have ever read.

Forget spending money on the latest Ban Drown, Kephen Sting, or Pames Jatterson ( at least for now ) if you haven’t read Frankenstein. The most heart-pumping, heart-wrenching, soul-destroying, life-affirming work of beauty is available to read completely free right now. That’s if you choose the ebook version. If you go for paperback, it’s a few bucks and a complete bargain.

If you only read one classic novel this year, make it Frankenstein .

If you need some convincing, I’ll give you five reasons why you should read Frankenstein , then we’ll get into this review and look at some of the book’s most compelling themes and quotes.

5 reasons you should read Frankenstein :

It’s short. The first edition is about 240 pages. Read just 10 pages a day and you’ll finish the book in less than a month.
It’s a fast read. The pacing, the plot, the tension, the need to find out “what happens” will make you gobble this book up in a flash.
It’s not that difficult. For a book written in 1818, Frankenstein reads remarkably contemporary. Mary Shelley is a master writer and knows how to write a beautiful sentence but she rarely becomes convoluted in the way that many other classics are.
You will be moved. It is extraordinarily difficult not to feel compassion, empathy, and sympathy in painful quantities when reading Frankenstein .
It will sink into your life. Frankenstein is a cautionary moral tale that will force you to reconsider how you treat people or prejudge people.

If you haven’t read Frankenstein , reading over some of the elements that made the deepest impression upon me might convince you further. Don’t worry about spoilers. You probably know the gist of the story (after all, it’s made it’s way into every corner of pop culture) but you might not know the ending. I won’t give that away here.

If you’ve already read Frankenstein , let me know if these themes resonated with you as well. If you need to write an essay or book review on Frankenstein for school, I’d highly recommend focusing in on a few of these elements.

Steady purpose does not always tranquillise the mind

Right at the beginning of Frankenstein , the narrator who presents us with the story of Frankenstein, Walton, writes this in a letter to his sister, Margaret:

nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose,—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

When you first begin reading Frankenstein , you’re inclined to agree with Walton.

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

Being steady in your purpose has a calming effect because you feel like you’re doing something that matters, something you were made for, something that might even benefit the world.

But the deeper you get into Frankenstein , the more you realise that this is a pithy but erroneous soundbite.

It sounds good. It sounds logical.

Yet it’s not true.

Victor Frankenstein’s purpose of animating a figure built from the parts of corpses was steady.

His pursuit of the monster and vow to destroy it was steady.

But his mind was anything but tranquil. In short, Frankenstein was a nervous wreck.

I’m sure a steady purpose can tranquillise the mind. But I believe it’s entirely dependent on the nature of the purpose and whether it aligns with your moral compass.

You can also have a steady purpose that you believe in but you later discover to be a mistake.

Even with a good steady purpose like philanthropy, the arts, or the advancement of science and technology, your mind can be wracked with self-doubt and anxiety.

Education can be dangerous.

Whole books could be written on the subject of education in Frankenstein .

Frankenstein talks about his childhood education and gives a view that application is the way in which to deeply impress knowledge upon the mind.

We learned Latin and English, that we might read the writings in those languages; and so far from study being made odious to us through punishment, we loved application, and our amusements would have been the labours of other children. Perhaps we did not read so many books, or learn languages so quickly, as those who are disciplined according to the ordinary methods; but what we learned was impressed the more deeply on our memories.

Again, because this comes near the beginning of Frankenstein , we can be forgiven for thinking this is a pretty sound pedagogical philosophy.

But if the material one is learning is dangerous, or the individual doing the learning has a dangerous purpose, do we really want to impress this learning deep into our memories?

Choose the wrong thing to teach and ensure it stays seared into the brains of impressionable mistaken youths… And you may just have a problem on your hands.

We can also see in Frankenstein the idea that one erroneous statement implanted in the mind can spark a whole chain reaction of desires.

That is some Inception shit right there.

Frankenstein’s spark comes from his interactions with his teacher’s at university. There are two teachers, one who inadvertently nurtures Frankenstein’s desires, one who does not.

The teachers aren’t to blame as Frankenstein brings a paradigm of judging people based on appearance and attitude and uses that as a lens to judge their worth as educators and dispensers of ideas ( this theme of judging and prejudging is strong throughout the book ).

Frankenstein discards Krempe’s teachings based not on merit alone but based on the figure delivering them:

M. Krempe was a little squat man, with a gruff voice and repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his doctrine.

The more we read into Frankenstein , the more we question Frankenstein’s intelligence.

Animating the dead might require one kind of intelligence, but our central protagonist is severely lacking in another kind of intelligence:

Self-awareness.

He tries to convince us of this bullshit:

The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind.

Is that true?

If you’ve reached the end of Frankenstein , let me know your thoughts on that one…

I can rattle of a list of names of so-called “men of genius” ( at least they would call themselves that ) who have recently been indicted for serious crimes that did not turn to the “solid advantage of mankind”.

Frankenstein, as a character, is incredibly detestable.

I’m not sure there is another character in the entirety of literature I have hated so much.

I’m convinced that the reason I find him so repulsive is because he lacks self-awareness and yet still has the gall to call himself intelligent.

He is a hypocrite and a coward of the highest order.

His bullshit advice is endless:

A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity.

Now there’s nothing wrong with that advice but…

Frankenstein himself cannot take his own advice.

Doesn’t that make you question the advice itself?

What we’re witnessing as we watch Frankenstein’s fall – and make no mistake, the entire book is a strong allusion to Milton’s Paradise Lost (Shelley even started her first edition with a quote from the epic poem ) – is every thinking person’s worst nightmare.

Frankenstein slaved away for two years on a passion project that he believed would benefit mankind because of one thought that consumed his every waking moment…

And when he completed his work, he felt not pride but disgust .

I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.

There are, of course, glimmers of self-awareness in Frankenstein when he implores us to learn from his mistakes:

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.

We can see Frankenstein as a cautionary tale as Frankenstein continues to warn us about the pursuit of knowledge:

If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.

Sometimes, when in the midst of deepest meditations, Frankenstein shows self-awareness:

if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country; America would have been discovered more gradually; and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed.

But is knowledge itself really to blame?

Frankenstein’s monster also seems to blame knowledge. He’s an intelligent being, knows hatred is wrong, believes in virtue…

To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm. For a long time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased, and I turned away with disgust and loathing.

And yet the monster falls back on this idea that “knowledge clings to the mind”:

Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feeling; but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death—a state which I feared yet did not understand. I admired virtue and good feelings, and loved the gentle manners and amiable qualities of my cottagers; but I was shut out from intercourse with them, except through means which I obtained by stealth, when I was unseen and unknown, and which rather increased than satisfied the desire I had of becoming one among my fellows. The gentle words of Agatha, and the animated smiles of the charming Arabian, were not for me. The mild exhortations of the old man, and the lively conversation of the loved Felix, were not for me. Miserable, unhappy wretch!

What do you see in that passage?

Is knowledge really to blame?

Or should the blame be thrown at man?

The barbarity of man.

That’s a phrase from the monster himself (though I wish I didn’t have to call him a ‘monster’):

I retreated, and lay down, happy to have found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man.

The monster has been locked out of heaven by the barbarity of man.

Whilst Frankenstein is the most detestable character I have ever encountered in literature, the monster is the most sympathetic character I have ever encountered.

I’m sure anyone who has read Frankenstein has thought the same as me, and the sentiment is likely a cliché by now, but Frankenstein truly is the monster.

But not just Frankenstein…

The whole of mankind is monstrous and responsible for creating the monster.

The monster is actually an intelligent gentle man of feeling who wants only love.

We the reader watch Frankenstein in much the same way that Frankenstein watches humans in secret through the windows of their home.

And the way the lives of humans moves the monster, moves us in equal measure.

I felt sensations of a peculiar and over-powering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions.

The monster’s empathy makes us sympathise with him.

He is able to see hardship and feel the pain of others as though it were his own.

He cares for these people and wants to understand why they cry in, I believe, the hopes of being able to halt their tears:

They were not entirely happy. The young man and his companion often went apart, and appeared to weep. I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but I was deeply affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched. Yet why were these gentle beings unhappy? They possessed a delightful house (for such it was in my eyes), and every luxury; they had a fire to warm them when chill, and delicious viands when hungry; they were dressed in excellent clothes; and, still more, they enjoyed one another’s company and speech, interchanging each day looks of affection and kindness. What did their tears imply? Did they really express pain? I was at first unable to solve these questions; but perpetual attention, and time, explained to me many appearances which were at first enigmatic.

When the monster discovers the cause of their distress as being poverty, he endeavours to help them in secrecy.

He knows they will be startled at his appearance, so he helps them without revealing himself and with no thoughts of reward in mind.

Service to mankind is reward enough for the monster:

A considerable period elapsed before I discovered one of the causes of the uneasiness of this amiable family; it was poverty; and they suffered that evil in a very distressing degree. Their nourishment consisted entirely of the vegetables of their garden, and the milk of one cow, who gave very little during the winter, when its masters could scarcely procure food to support it. They often, I believe, suffered the pangs of hunger very poignantly, especially the two younger cottagers; for several times they placed food before the old man, when they reserved none for themselves. This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighbouring wood. I discovered also another means through which I was enabled to assist their labours. I found that the youth spent a great part of each day in collecting wood for the family fire; and, during the night, I often took his tools, the use of which I quickly discovered, and brought home firing sufficient for the consumption of several days. I remember, the first time that I did this, the young woman, when she opened the door in the morning, appeared greatly astonished on seeing a great pile of wood on the outside. She uttered some words in a loud voice, and the youth joined her, who also expressed surprise. I observed, with pleasure, that he did not go to the forest that day, but spent it in repairing the cottage, and cultivating the garden.

Why is the monster so sympathetic?

The monster is an outsider looking in.

We can all sympathise with that.

We know what it’s like to be outside of a group and we have either experienced being rejected from a group, not accepted in the first place, or at least been plagued by the anxiety caused by thinking rejection is a possibility.

All men reject the monster…

Even his creator rejects him.

Abhorred monster! fiend that thou art! the tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! you reproach me with your creation; come on then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed.

Imagine being born unloved, unwanted, and abandoned.

Then everywhere you went, you were met with horror and hatred.

When you finally return to your parent, they wish to kill you.

That’s the monster’s dilemma in a nutshell.

“I expected this reception,” said the dæmon. “All men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends.”

The monster only turns bad when he has been rejected so many times.

All he wants is love and yet no one will give it to him.

The monster is a kid from a single-parent home, unwanted by everyone.

Now he’s acting out.

But with a good reason:

Unfeeling, heartless creator! you had endowed me with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind.

We all knew someone like that at school.

Someone who uses violence because they really want love.

It’s no mistake that Shelley continuously contrasts imagery of heat and ice:

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!

Polar opposites like love and hate, two emotions that entirely govern the monster.

In addition to the recurring symbols of fire and ice, Frankenstein is filled with sublime and beautiful imagery.

The sublime and beautiful in Frankenstein .

We see the sublime and beautiful through Frankenstein’s eyes as he sees great scenes of nature:

Power and serenity coexisting in scenes like Mont Blanc:

We pursued our journey upon mules; and as we ascended still higher, the valley assumed a more magnificent and astonishing character. Ruined castles hanging on the precipices of piny mountains; the impetuous Arve, and cottages every here and there peeping forth from among the trees, formed a scene of singular beauty. But it was augmented and rendered sublime by the mighty Alps, whose white and shining pyramids and domes towered above all, as belonging to another earth, the habitations of another race of beings. These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving. They elevated me from all littleness of feeling The sight of the awful and majestic in nature had indeed always the effect of solemnizing my mind, and causing me to forget the passing cares of life.

But Frankenstein is blind to the sublime and beautiful in his own creation.

The monster is sublimity itself with his appearance of power, instilling fear. But his mind, sentiments, intelligence, and delicacy of desire and emotion are beautiful.

Yet there’s an imbalance. His beauty is ignored, practically destroyed, and sublimity rises up with the monster indulging only his awe-inspiring, powerful, fear-inducing side.

Read more about the sublime and beautiful:

What Is Sublime? A Super Quick Introduction in the Context of Romantic Poetry
Mont Blanc by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Landscape and the Sublime

We know in reading Frankenstein that it is the creator and mankind that were responsible for the devastating behaviour of the monster.

But the question is why?

It comes down to prejudgement.

Frankenstein is a cautionary moral tale about the dangers of prejudgement.

People make up their minds about the monster before he has even done anything to warrant their opinions.

After William is murdered, Frankenstein says this:

A flash of lightning illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy dæmon, to whom I had given life. What did he there? Could he be (I shuddered at the conception) the murderer of my brother? No sooner did that idea cross my imagination, than I became convinced of its truth; my teeth chattered, and I was forced to lean against a tree for support. The figure passed me quickly, and I lost it in the gloom. Nothing in human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer! I could not doubt it. The mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact.

Once again, Frankenstein is showing that animating a stitched-together collection of corpses is only one form of intelligence.

In addition to severely lacking self-awareness, Frankenstein is also completely devoid of emotional intelligence .

He prejudges the monster and basically says his ugly appearance is proof enough of him being a murderer.

This theme alone is why Frankenstein has the power to move readers to tears two-hundred years after it was written.

Us humans will always continue to wrestle with ideas of acceptance, rejection, prejudgement, and prejudice.

Why else is The Greatest Showman making a killing at the box office?

Frankenstein is also a tale of victimisation.

But the book becomes all the more difficult when, despite feeling overwhelming empathy for the monster, we begin to wonder how much the monster himself is to blame for his fare in life.

Let’s be honest, the monster didn’t do much to help his cause, did he?

I agree with the pain in his words as he speaks of the injustice and cruelty he has been born into:

“You are in the wrong,” replied the fiend; “and, instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable; am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder, if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man, when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and, instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you curse the hour of your birth.”

I can’t help but be reminded of Shylock’s famous “I am a Jew” speech from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice .

Yet how much sympathy should we feel for the monster when his solution is revenge, despite a deep understanding that it is wrong?

Both Frankenstein and the monster ignore their potential redemptions.

Frankenstein wanted to help mankind but was blind to the fact that he could do so by helping his monster.

I had begun life with benevolent intentions, and thirsted for the moment when I should put them in practice, and make myself useful to my fellow-beings. Now all was blasted: instead of that serenity of conscience, which allowed me to look back upon the past with self-satisfaction, and from thence to gather promise of new hopes, I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe.

He could have also avoided his own intense pain and the deaths of others had he not rushed to prejudge the monster and instead teach him love by example.

The monster too could have taken a leaf out Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning ( review here ) and understood that his environmental conditions need not govern his response.

But we could debate this endlessly.

Frankenstein is a fascinating piece of art and I’m already going to reread it.

Then I’m going to follow the story out into the wider expanse of literature, like an estuary making its way to sea, and check these books off my list:

Paradise Lost – Milton
The Last Man – Shelley
Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein
Prometheus Bound – Aeschylus
The Island of Dr. Moreau – Wells
This Dark Endeavour – Kenneth Oppel
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Stevenson

You can read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein here .

All quotes are taken from: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein (AmazonClassics Edition)

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How Queer Is “Frankenstein”?

By Ruth Franklin

A photo of Shelley surrounded by leaves insects and babies.

“Chloe liked Olivia.” When Virginia Woolf wrote this innocuous sentence in “ A Room of One’s Own ,” her foundational work of feminist criticism, she opened the door to another field, still decades in the future—that of queer literary criticism. “Do not start. Do not blush,” Woolf cautioned her audience. (The published text of “A Room of One’s Own” is framed as a lecture and based on a pair of talks that she gave at two Cambridge women’s colleges in October, 1928.) “Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes women do like women.”

Chloe and Olivia are characters in a book that Woolf has invented, a mediocre novel by a writer she names Mary Carmichael. Ostensibly, the women are friends and colleagues, not lovers, but Woolf drops clues for attentive readers. At one point, she interrupts her train of thought to ask for reassurance that Sir Chartres Biron is not lurking somewhere in the room. When she gave her original talks, Biron had recently been appointed the chief magistrate in an obscenity case that had been brought against the publisher of Radclyffe Hall’s “ The Well of Loneliness ,” a novel about a girl named Stephen who wants to be a boy and has romantic feelings for women. The novel had been published earlier that year, and the trial, which Woolf would attend, took place a couple of weeks after the Cambridge lectures. What’s more, Woolf had just published her novel “ Orlando ,” a fictional biography of a man who transforms into a woman. The inspiration for the book was her lover Vita Sackville-West, who accompanied Woolf on at least one of her trips to Cambridge. The implications of Biron’s crusade would not have been lost on either of them.

A typical reader may skim over the reference to Biron, which is no more than an aside. But, as is often the case in queer history, words unspoken or muttered under the breath can be more significant than words said aloud. Woolf laments the paucity of models for relationships between women in novels by male writers: “If Chloe likes Olivia and Mary Carmichael knows how to express it she will light a torch in that vast chamber where nobody has yet been.” “A Room of One’s Own” argues for the importance of literary forebears. “We think back through our mothers if we are women,” Woolf writes. If conventional literary history passes over these figures, we may need to create them.

Discover notable new fiction and nonfiction.

Feminist readers have long acknowledged Mary Shelley as one of the most influential of those literary mothers. In the past few decades, her novel “ Frankenstein ”—which she began writing, extraordinarily, at the age of eighteen—has been credited as a primary text not only in science fiction, a genre that the book is said to have originated, but also in fiction about women’s experience. Critics have drawn attention to the circumstances under which Shelley wrote the novel: her first child, born prematurely, had died at less than two weeks old the previous year, and she had recently given birth to another; she then became pregnant again during the year she worked on “Frankenstein.” Her journal hints at another haunting analogue for the work of Victor Frankenstein, a student of science who creates a figure out of dead matter, stitches it together, and animates it: “Dream that my little baby came to life again—that it had only been cold & that we rubbed it by the fire & it lived.”

At the same time, the novel can be read as a fantasy of reproduction without women, giving rise to queer-oriented interpretations. Critics have noticed that the horror and revulsion with which Victor reacts to his creation, which is male, resemble the “homosexual panic” sometimes manifested by men confronted with homosexuality in nineteenth-century England, where sexual relations between men had been criminalized for at least five hundred years. The creature initially appears at Victor’s bedside as he awakens from a nightmare about kissing Elizabeth, his cousin and intended bride, who turns into a corpse in his arms. Victor, whose closest relationship is with his boyhood friend Henry Clerval, refers to his creation as a “dreadful secret” that he can reveal to Elizabeth only after their wedding night. Even the namelessness of the creature—Victor calls it “the being” or “the fiend”—might be seen as anticipating Lord Alfred Douglas’s famous reference to homosexuality as “the love that dare not speak its name.” The Age of Frankenstein, as the critic Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick called this period in England, was one in which gay men suffered constant fear of exposure and arrest, which could result in a sentence of death or, as in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 conviction, of forced labor. The poet Lord Byron—whom Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, her eventual husband, met and befriended while visiting Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816—sought refuge in Switzerland after rumors spread in London about his penchant for young men.

Though sexual relationships between women were not criminalized, women whose romantic inclinations defied the heterosexual standard generally faced a choice between repressing their desires and living as outcasts. Was Mary Shelley herself such a woman? The Dutch novelist Anne Eekhout suggests as much in “ Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein ” (HarperVia), a reimagining of both Mary’s early life and the period during which she wrote her famous novel. Regardless of whether her biography confirms that designation—and at least one late relationship suggests that it does—Eekhout’s book, together with two other recent novels that expand the contours of Shelley’s life, offers a bold new framing for questions about where we draw lines: between queerness and heterosexuality, the natural and the unnatural, and the imaginary and the real.

The origin story of “Frankenstein” is nearly as famous as the novel itself. During the summer of 1816, the Shelleys, visiting Lake Geneva along with Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont, spent time with Byron and his friend John Polidori, who were staying at a nearby villa. One evening, the group read aloud from a book of ghost stories, and then Byron challenged each of them to write one. Everyone except for Mary abandoned the effort. As she wrote in her preface to the third edition of “Frankenstein,” the premise had come to her in a vision: “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. . . . I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.”

Eekhout’s novel proposes a different origin story. Four years before the trip to Lake Geneva, as biographers have chronicled, Mary, then a young teen-ager, paid an extended visit to the home of William Baxter, a Scottish friend of her father’s. She became close to Baxter’s daughter Isabella, a vivacious girl of sixteen, with whom she rambled in the countryside during the day and shared a room at night. Near the house was a hill where the spirits of women who had been burned as witches were said to walk. It was in this landscape, Shelley later wrote, that “the airy flights of my imagination” first took shape.

In Eekhout’s novel, Mary discovers her powers of invention during one of the Baxter family’s regular storytelling sessions, when she takes an episode from her life and elaborates on it “until it was more than the truth.” This is an apt description of Eekhout’s own method, which picks up the seeds dropped by Shelley’s biographers about Isabella and allows them to bloom into an intense romantic and sexual attachment. The narrative unfolds in hypnotic language steeped in fantasy and allusion, poetically translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson. The girls examine a book about mythological gender-bending sea creatures, “half male, half female, with breasts and beards, elegant, long hair, tough, muscular arms, and a fish’s tail.” At once seductive and dangerous, the beings exert a fascination on the girls, who may unconsciously recognize in them something of themselves.

In her preface to “Frankenstein,” Shelley writes of hearing Percy and Byron discuss the experiments of Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles ), who is said to have observed a microbe spontaneously coming to life. Eekhout represents the potentially sinister powers of science in the figure of David Booth, a mysterious older man married to Isabella’s sister, Margaret. Booth speaks about seeing a physicist use electricity to reanimate the corpse of a criminal. Soon afterward, while walking in the countryside near the Baxters’ home, Mary and Isabella glimpse a creature similar to a man but larger, with dark skin and hair on its body—the result, perhaps, of a deranged experiment by Booth, whose odd behavior disconcerts them.

The idea that “Frankenstein” could have been inspired by the work of an actual mad scientist may seem to diminish the genius of Shelley’s imagination. But Eekhout suggests throughout the novel that the beast, which Mary continues to see, could be the offspring of her own fantasies. The monster—if that is what it is—appears only at moments of sexual tension between Mary and Isabella. That first glimpse takes place after the girls have decided to remove their corsets and expose their skin to the air. Mary sees it again after an intensely erotic episode (which she may or may not have imagined) while she and Isabella are swimming nude in a lake, and again as she stands outside the window of their bedroom after a similar encounter, or a dream of one. “Our monster was here,” Mary says—a phrase that could refer to either the physical creature or the frightening power of their sexuality.

The monster reappears four years later, as Mary struggles to come up with a ghost story. She is tormented by Percy’s attention to Claire Clairmont, with whom he may be having an affair, and even more so by dreams of their dead child. With unusual deftness, Eekhout blurs the lines between the facts of Mary Shelley’s life and the world of the novel. The fictional Mary blames herself for not having watched over the baby more carefully: Did her feelings for Isabella mark her as an unnatural woman who shouldn’t be a mother? (Four years earlier, sick and delirious in the Booths’ house, she had a dream about giving birth in which a midwife tore her newborn daughter limb from limb, saying, “Girls like that cannot exist.”) She is also distressed by Percy’s insistence that they should both have sex with others—a demand that she experiences as an affront to her nature. After Polidori kisses her, at Percy’s instigation, she becomes enraged: “There is a beast inside her, a monster . . . it howls. It is awake.”

“Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein” is punctuated by appearances of a mythical creature called the Draulameth, which can be seen as personifying the perils of any chosen path for a queer person in nineteenth-century England. The Draulameth insinuates itself into people’s minds and lures them to the sea: “As you stand there on the water’s edge, it shows you how your life could be: all your fears become reality, your dreams dissolve in the foam of the waves. Every moment of your life will be filled with horror, bitterness, sadness, and loss, or: you go with the Draulameth.” The creature is first invoked by Booth, apparently as an attempt to frighten Mary into agreeing to marry him after Margaret dies under suspicious circumstances. But it might also be read as another monstrous embodiment of Mary’s desires—or her fear of them. Beyond the novel, the legend takes on the qualities of a grim prophecy, in light of what would happen to the historical Mary Shelley. Within a few years, she would experience the early deaths of three of her and Percy’s four children, as well as the death of Allegra, Claire’s daughter by Byron, at age five; the suicides of her half sister Fanny Imlay and of Percy’s first wife, Harriet; and, finally, Percy’s death, in a shipwreck, in 1822.

After these tragedies, Shelley developed an intense friendship with Jane Williams, the widow of a friend who had drowned with Percy. Recalling these years in a letter to a friend in 1835, Shelley confessed that, after Percy died, she was “ready to give myself away—and being afraid of men, I was apt to get tousy-mousy for women” (a reference to sex). In the travel book “Rambles in Germany and Italy’’ (1844), Shelley’s final published work, she wrote of the art she had encountered and argued that artists should not be condemned for depicting homosexual love—“a bold stance that was anathema to most Victorians,” Charlotte Gordon argues in “Romantic Outlaws,” her dual biography of Shelley and her mother, the writer and political activist Mary Wollstonecraft. Gordon describes the real-life Isabella Baxter and Mary Shelley as sharing a mutual admiration for Booth—feared by neighbors for his “prodigious store of arcane knowledge,” but also for his radical politics—and writes that Shelley encouraged Baxter to marry him after her sister’s death. In Eekhout’s novel, these events play out differently. But, in its philosophy, this fictional excavation of a lesser-known episode in Shelley’s life feels true to her memory.

Victor Frankenstein’s anxiety about the birth of his creature has lately been understood as a reflection of Shelley’s tragic pregnancies. But we can also hear in it the reverberations of her own birth: Wollstonecraft died of an infection shortly afterward. The aftermath—common in those days—was a household uncomfortably stitched together. Shelley’s father, William Godwin, was already responsible for Fanny Imlay, Wollstonecraft’s daughter from an earlier relationship; he soon wed Mary Jane Clairmont, a widow who brought her own two children into the home and didn’t get along with her stepdaughters.

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Though Godwin and Wollstonecraft had disparaged marriage as a patriarchal institution, they had decided to marry when Wollstonecraft became pregnant, in order to spare their daughter the uncertain fate of an illegitimate child. The narrator of C. E. McGill’s “Our Hideous Progeny” (Harper) is not as lucky. Her mother became pregnant by the son of the family for whom she was a servant, was banished from their home, and died in childbirth. The baby’s father, who brought her back to the family home, died of consumption shortly thereafter, leaving the child to be raised by his mother, a forbidding woman who never hesitates to remind her granddaughter of the disgrace of her birth. “An ill-gotten child is a faulty cog; living testament to the fact that rules are not always followed, that sons and daughters cannot always be controlled, that men and women do not always couple as we might think they should,” the narrator muses.

“ Our Hideous Progeny ” might be called historical science fiction: it takes place in the aftermath of “Frankenstein,” treating that text as if it were a true family history rather than a novel. Blood runs strong in this family, of whom all the child narrator initially knows is their surname—“long and sharp and foreign”—which she, being illegitimate, does not share. She grows up hearing stories of her grandfather, a businessman who left Geneva for London, and of a mysterious tragedy. One of her grandfather’s brothers was murdered, as was a sister-in-law; another brother went insane and disappeared, leaving behind only a trunk full of old papers entrusted to a British sea captain. In these papers, as she eventually discovers, her great-uncle, one Victor Frankenstein, chronicles an experiment gone grotesquely awry.

The narrator, whose name is Mary, inherits her ancestor’s scientific proclivities, as well as his boldness. Growing up on the Isle of Wight, she is fascinated by fossils that wash up on the shore. As a teen-ager, she follows debates among scientists trying to puzzle out what dinosaurs looked like and how they moved. Eventually, she undertakes an experiment worthy of Victor Frankenstein, had he been a paleontologist.

And what if Frankenstein had also been a woman? In “A Room of One’s Own,” Woolf posits the existence of a Judith Shakespeare, sister to the playwright, and imagines the fate of a female genius in Elizabethan England: insanity, suicide, or isolation “in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at.” The narrator of “Our Hideous Progeny” is, in effect, a Victoria Frankenstein. Unlike her infamous progenitor, who runs from the creature he animates, she acts as mother to hers: caring for it, educating it, and ultimately giving it what it needs most. Did Victor Frankenstein’s crime lie not in creating a new being but in deserting it? If he had reared it properly, it might not have sought recourse in rage and violence.

Like Eekhout, McGill is concerned with questions about what is natural or normal and what is not—and the conservatism and arbitrariness with which such distinctions are made. The novel’s protagonist is motivated by her sense of herself as an unnatural creature. Her world has no language for a female scientist: as McGill points out in a postscript, the term at the time was “man of science.” And her interest in fossils is linked from the start to her passionate attachment to another girl her own age who identifies an ammonite that the narrator finds on the beach. Like Mary and Isabella, in Eekhout’s novel, they pore over a book filled with illustrations of monsters, but this one is a paleontology text called “Book of the Great Sea-Dragons.” Perhaps this is a nod to Woolf: her Chloe and Olivia are scientists who share a laboratory.

Later, in a marriage that resembles a business partnership, McGill’s Mary becomes close to her husband’s sister, whose status as a spinster and an invalid, in the social strictures of the time, renders her an outsider. Mary is drawn, too, to others who inhabit the outskirts, such as an Indian scientist who points out that British innovation relies on imperialism. “West Indian cotton in the looms, Amazonian rubber in the hydraulics,” he says. “What wonders the British have made, with their own wit and gumption.”

Evocatively and compassionately, “Our Hideous Progeny” seeks a way to tell the stories of those “whose tales cannot fit in one book, those poor creatures who remain lost or forgotten,” as one character notes. Here, too, there are real-life analogues. The teen-age Mary Wollstonecraft imagined setting up a household with her friend Fanny Blood, an artist who supported her family at the age of eighteen by making botanical illustrations. Wollstonecraft was saddened when Blood chose to marry a man who Wollstonecraft thought was unworthy of her, and was devastated when she died in childbirth soon afterward.

But happier endings were also possible. Half a century later, Mary Shelley became close to a woman named Isabel Robinson, who had recently given birth to an illegitimate child. Together with another friend, Mary Diana Dods, known as Doddy, Shelley concocted a plan: Doddy, whose looks were masculine, would disguise herself as a man and move with Isabel to France, where the two would pretend to be husband and wife. McGill’s narrator, too, ultimately finds a way to escape from patriarchy with her respectability intact and live a life true to her desires.

In 2011, a BBC article suggested ten ways to read the novel “Frankenstein”; a follow-up a few weeks later offered at least a dozen more, derived from readers’ comments. Most fundamentally, the book has been seen as an analogue to God’s creation of Adam, and as a perversion of it. If humans are created in the image of our Maker, then what Victor Frankenstein does is a crime against God as well as nature. “Supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator,” Shelley wrote in her preface.

Some of the novel’s earliest readers reacted violently to its implicit atheism: one called it “the foulest Toadstool that has yet sprung up from the reeking dunghill of the present times.” But, as others have pointed out, Frankenstein’s intention is not to compete with the divine but to be useful to humanity: he hopes to ultimately eliminate diseases such as those which killed Shelley’s mother and children. And he creates only a single being. “If this is a blasphemous crime, then all parents stand condemned for it too,” one “Frankenstein” scholar has written.

Pregnancy and birth, if not as deadly today as they were in Mary Shelley’s time, can still be gruesome. Louisa Hall’s “ Reproduction ” (Ecco) is a work of autofiction that juxtaposes a failed attempt to write a novel about Shelley with harrowing stories of pregnancy: debilitating nausea, a late-stage miscarriage, an experience of labor that makes the narrator feel as if she had “departed from Earth,” a hemorrhage in which blood clots the size of her organs emerge from her body. Recalling that Shelley was pregnant when she wrote “Frankenstein,” Hall vividly imagines pregnancy’s effect on the novelist’s body and mind. “What am I? she must have wondered. What kind of creature is this?” The female body is mad scientist and creation in one.

In Hall’s hands, “Frankenstein” evolves yet again, this time becoming a parable for a contemporary American dystopia of climate change, abortion restrictions, family separation, white supremacy, and, finally, COVID —all of which give the narrator a sense that “the world had tilted ever so slightly toward the science-fictional.” The last section, a novella in itself, tells the story of a female scientist who “edits” her own defective embryos, altering their genes to make them viable. She sees this process as returning them to a “natural” condition, “the state they’d have been in if they’d been conceived in a world without pollution and global warming.”

The parallels that Hall draws with “Frankenstein” sometimes feel too direct, as when the narrator imagines a miscarried fetus as her own “creature of imperfect animation.” But her ultimate insight is resonant: “We are all monsters, stitched together loosely, composed of remnants from other lives, pieces that often don’t seem as though they could plausibly belong to us.” McGill, similarly, urges the contemporary reader to reclaim the idea of monstrousness as something empowering, especially for “women who love women, women who didn’t know they were women at first but know better now, those who thought they were women at first but know better now. We shall be monsters , you and I.”

Perhaps this is why the “Frankenstein” story continues to haunt us. If, as parents, we are Victor Frankenstein, then as children we are all his creature. Or, perhaps better, the creature is us: the expression of our most forbidden desires, for sex or violence or revenge, as well as of our deepest fears—abandonment, isolation, unlovability. We may dress in clothes and abide by social compacts, but our bodies know that we are still animals. Even today, as we move ever closer to the boundary between person and machine, sharpening our vision with plastic in our eyes or replacing our joints with steel hardware, the creature lurks, threatening to expose us for what we truly are: imperfect, human, real. ♦

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Book Review: Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley's classic novel "Frankenstein", a young ambitious scientist decides to play God and, in the process, creates a monster. As the monster struggles with self-identity and the meaning of his life, he enacts revenge on his creator by destroying everything he loves. Any time you dive into a classic novel, it can be difficult to keep your expectations from getting too high. This novel met pretty much all of mine -- the rich character development of both Frankenstein and the monster, the excellent use of suspense and foreboding to create tension, and the well-paced action. There were definitely some slow parts, but that's mostly because the writing style has changed so much between then and now. However, the multiple perspectives helped keep things moving when they began to slow down. I really enjoyed this novel but I had one fairly big complaint: the ending felt rushed. I felt that we were building up to a much more action-packed ending, but things fizzle out very quickly and the novel ends on a strangely unsatisfying note. I think that there could've been more time spent creating a strong conclusion to a really strong story. Besides that, this classic is excellent and definitely worth a read. Grade: 12

Frankenstein

Mary shelley, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Robert Walton , the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, writes a letter to his sister, Margaret Saville , in which he says that his crew members recently discovered a man adrift at sea. The man, Victor Frankenstein , offered to tell Walton his story.

Frankenstein has a perfect childhood in Switzerland, with a loving family that even adopted orphans in need, including the beautiful Elizabeth , who soon becomes Victor's closest friend, confidante, and love. Victor also has a caring and wonderful best friend, Henry Clerval . Just before Victor turns seventeen and goes to study at the University at Ingolstadt, his mother dies of scarlet fever. At Ingolstadt, Victor dives into "natural philosophy" with a passion, studying the secrets of life with such zeal that he even loses touch with his family. He soon rises to the top of his field, and suddenly, one night, discovers the secret of life. With visions of creating a new and noble race, Victor puts his knowledge to work. But when he animates his first creature, its appearance is so horrifying he abandons it. Victor hopes the monster has disappeared for ever, but some months later he receives word that his youngest brother, William, has been murdered. Though Victor sees the monster lingering at the site of the murder and is sure it did the deed, he fears no one will believe him and keeps silent. Justine Moritz , another adoptee in his family, has been falsely accused based of the crime. She is convicted and executed. Victor is consumed by guilt.

To escape its tragedy, the Frankensteins go on vacation. Victor often hikes in the mountains, hoping to alleviate his suffering with the beauty of nature. One day the monster appears, and despite Victor's curses begs him incredibly eloquently to listen to its story. The monster describes his wretched life, full of suffering and rejection solely because of his horrifying appearance. (The monster also explains how he learned to read and speak so well.) The monster blames his rage on humanity's inability to perceive his inner goodness and his resulting total isolation. It demands that Victor, its creator who brought it into this wretched life, create a female monster to give it the love that no human ever will. Victor refuses at first, but then agrees.

Back in Geneva, Victor's father expresses his wish that Victor marry Elizabeth. Victor says he first must travel to England. On the way to England, Victor meets up with Clerval. Soon, though, Victor leaves Clerval at the house of a friend in Scotland and moves to a remote island to make his second, female, monster. But one night Victor begins to worry that the female monster might turn out more destructive than the first. At the same moment, Victor sees the first monster watching him work through a window. The horrifying sight pushes Victor to destroy the female monster. The monster vows revenge, warning Victor that it will "be with him on [his] wedding night." Victor takes the remains of the female monster and dumps them in the ocean. But when he returns to shore, he is accused of a murder that was committed that same night. When Victor discovers that the victim is Clerval, he collapses and remains delusional for two months. When he wakes his father has arrived, and he is cleared of the criminal charges against him.

Victor returns with his father to Geneva, and marries Elizabeth. But on his wedding night, the monster instead kills Elizabeth. Victor's father dies of grief soon thereafter. Now, all alone in the world, Victor dedicates himself solely to seeking revenge against the monster. He tracks the monster to the Arctic, but becomes trapped on breaking ice and is rescued by Walton's crew.

Walton writes another series of letters to his sister. He tells her about his failure to reach the North Pole and to restore Victor, who died soon after his rescue. Walton's final letter describes his discovery of the monster grieving over Victor's corpse. He accuses the monster of having no remorse, but the monster says it has suffered more than anyone. With Victor dead, the monster has its revenge and plans to end its own life.

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Conjuring Mary Shelley’s Outrageous Imagination

A Dutch novelist envisions the creation of “Frankenstein,” Shelley’s most famous work.

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This oval portrait depicts a woman against a gold background with pale skin, green eyes, and long golden hair, only partially visible under a diaphanous patterned shawl, which drapes over her shoulders and is pinned at her chest with a blue violet. The woman has a serene expression and a thin gold tiara in her hair.

By Harriet Lane

MARY AND THE BIRTH OF FRANKENSTEIN , by Anne Eekhout. Translated by Laura Watkinson.

The circumstances leading up to the writing of “Frankenstein,” the creative act at the heart of Anne Eekhout’s new novel — first published in the Netherlands in 2021, now translated into English — are every bit as wild and unlikely as the tale of the creature itself. It’s 1816, and 18-year-old Mary Godwin, the daughter of the radical philosophers Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, is summering scandalously on the shores of Lake Geneva with her married lover, the firebrand poet and free-love advocate Percy Shelley; their baby son; and her high-strung stepsister Claire Claremont. (Mary becomes Mary Shelley later that year, following the suicide of Percy’s first wife, barely mentioned in Eekhout’s novel.) Their neighbors in Cologny are Lord Byron (“Albe,” after his initials) and his physician, John Polidori.

It’s quite the tinderbox. Claire, pregnant by Albe, who has lost interest in her, looks to Percy for consolation, and this distresses Mary, herself busy fending off the doctor’s advances. The summer is freakishly cold and stormy, skies shrouded with volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Tambora the year before, so the company is mostly stuck indoors, glugging quantities of wine and laudanum, arguing about electricity, God and the French Revolution. When Albe proposes a ghost-story contest, Mary “thinks something is there. Maybe. Maybe it is something terrible.”

The Mary of Eekhout’s novel has a mind teeming with ghosts: her firstborn child, dead at 11 days; her famous mother, dead 11 days after Mary’s own birth. She is also haunted by a summer four years earlier, when she stayed at the home of a textile merchant in Dundee, Scotland, and struck up an intimate friendship with his spirited daughter, Isabella. The reader understands that this sojourn holds the key to many mysteries.

Eekhout’s title, “Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein,” declares her ambition. She has set herself the task of conjuring the workings of Mary’s outrageous imagination as the first inklings of an idea take shape. Few novels have successfully suggested the murky swirl of impulse, instinct and experience behind real examples of great literary achievement. There’s Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “ The Hours ” (1998), in which Virginia Woolf writes the opening lines of “Mrs. Dalloway”; more recently, Colm Toibin has made compelling and much-admired fiction from the lives of Henry James (“ The Master ”) and Thomas Mann (“ The Magician ”).

But the business of novel-writing is often messy and tedious. Here, reading about it can also feel like hard work. One has sympathy for Mary as her companions pester her for updates: “How’s it going with your story?”; “What about you, Mary?” These moments of narrative housekeeping — devices that prompt Mary’s ruminations on love, loss and her creative process — begin to look rather clunky.

As we move between events at Cologny and the equally highly colored Dundee subplot, Mary and her companions seem increasingly stiff and unconvincing, trapped both by the sensational furniture of the novel (well-documented hallucinations and shrieking fits in Switzerland; imagined Sapphic crushes and villainous gentlemen in Scotland) and the flatness of the writing. Characters, many noted for their brilliance and originality, are obliged to “burst out laughing,” and “gasp as one” at a knock at the door. At one point the luckless Claire Claremont “sobs with a high-pitched snarl,” a sound I struggle to imagine. There are quantities of trembling, sighing, nodding and gazing into the distance, and eight episodes of goose bumps.

The novel expends considerable effort to show that Mary’s great act of creativity, like that of Victor Frankenstein, came when she began to piece together all manner of strange and horrifying material. But whether Eekhout truly animates Mary, as Mary Shelley herself animated both Frankenstein and his creature, is a little less certain.

Harriet Lane is the author of “Her” and “Alys, Always.”

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Frankenstein 1818 Paperback – May 25, 2024

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Print length 220 pages
Language English
Publication date May 25, 2024
Dimensions 5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
ISBN-10 981174663X
ISBN-13 978-9811746635
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Origami Books (May 25, 2024)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 220 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 981174663X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9811746635
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
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About the author

Mary shelley.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary Godwin's mother died when Mary was eleven days old; afterwards, Mary and her older half-sister, Fanny Imlay, were reared by their father. When Mary was four, Godwin married his neighbour, Mary Jane Clairmont. Godwin provided his daughter with a rich, if informal, education, encouraging her to adhere to his liberal political theories. In 1814, Mary Godwin began a romantic relationship with one of her father’s political followers, the married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Together with Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, they left for France and travelled through Europe; upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late 1816 after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.

In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Mary Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the age of 53.

Until the 1970s, Mary Shelley was known mainly for her efforts to publish Percy Shelley's works and for her novel Frankenstein, which remains widely read and has inspired many theatrical and film adaptations. Recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of Mary Shelley’s achievements. Scholars have shown increasing interest in her literary output, particularly in her novels, which include the historical novels Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the apocalyptic novel The Last Man (1826), and her final two novels, Lodore (1835) and Falkner (1837). Studies of her lesser-known works such as the travel book Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–46) support the growing view that Mary Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Mary Shelley's works often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by Percy Shelley and the Enlightenment political theories articulated by her father, William Godwin.

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COMMENTS

Frankenstein Book Review
Our review: Parents say ( 3 ): Kids say ( 17 ): From the hindsight of 200 years, there's much to mock in this book, and the prose can be a slog by today's standards. But the story and its philosophical issues are no less compelling today than they were when Mary Shelley wrote FRANKENSTEIN, as evidenced by the fact that they recur in so many ...
Review and Synopsis of Mary Shelley's Classic, "Frankenstein"
Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus," first published in 1818, is a foundational work in the science fiction and horror genres. It presents a compelling narrative that intertwines ambition, ethics, and the consequences of playing God. This review offers an in-depth analysis of Shelley's masterpiece, which is suitable ...
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Read Percy Shelley's review of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
When she unleashed Frankenstein upon the world two years later, she did so anonymously. Nevertheless, word got out that the book's author was a woman ( gasp ), and the ensuing early reviews were incredibly critical. One particularly misogynistic critic wrote, "The writer of it is, we understand, a female; this is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the novel; but if our ...
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley [A Review]
Frankenstein is a novel that has never left the popular imagination since it was first published in 1818 and it probably never will. A dark gothic fantasy, an early science fiction, or a 'precursor to the existential thriller'; its arresting power has captured every generation. Possibly it strikes at something disturbing in human nature.
The 100 best novels: No 8
The eighth title in our chronological series, Mary Shelley's first novel has been hailed as a masterpiece of horror and the macabre. T he summer of 1816 was a washout. After the cataclysmic April ...
Review: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
We use cookies to provide you with a great experience and to help our website run effectively. Frankenstein has been told and retold since its publication, but one thing that is certain, is that the original novel is not so much about fear or horror or monsters, but what happens when a living thing becomes lonely.
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Charlotte Gordon (Introduction) 3.87. 1,615,250 ratings64,244 reviews. This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780143131847. Mary Shelley's seminal novel of the scientist whose creation becomes a monster. This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects ...
Book Review—Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Clearly, it's an extremely popular story. First published in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein belongs to the horror category, but was also instrumental in creating the science fiction genre. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein collects and connects parts from dead bodies, creating a living being. As soon as it's brought to life, however ...
Frankenstein Study Guide
Key Facts about Frankenstein. Full Title: Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus. When Published: 1818. Literary Period: Switzerland and London, England: 1816-1817. Genre: Gothic novel. Setting: Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, and the North Pole in the 18th century. Climax: The Monster's murder of Elizabeth Lavenza on her wedding ...
The Paris Review
Victor and Mary—two teenagers on a spoiled vacation, reading a book that falls into their hands by chance. This is the starting point for both the monster and the novel. Frankenstein 's main themes are well-known: the hubris of the creator, the friendlessness of the creature, the inversion of hierarchies between them.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - My Review. The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone. If you want to get incredibly confused, indecisive about whose side you are on, ultimately realizing you do not have anything to compare this story with to be able ...
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name ...
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Book Review)
March 14, 2018 By Ben McEvoy. Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley is one of the most thrilling, haunting, and poignant books I have ever read. Forget spending money on the latest Ban Drown, Kephen Sting, or Pames Jatterson (at least for now) if you haven't read Frankenstein. The most heart-pumping, heart-wrenching, soul-destroying, life ...
How Queer Is "Frankenstein"?
Ruth Franklin reviews three novels that variously reimagine "Frankenstein" and the life of its author, Mary Shelley, in light of historical and contemporary conceptions of gender: Anne Eekhout ...
Book Review: Frankenstein
Review. In Mary Shelley's classic novel "Frankenstein", a young ambitious scientist decides to play God and, in the process, creates a monster. As the monster struggles with self-identity and the meaning of his life, he enacts revenge on his creator by destroying everything he loves. Any time you dive into a classic novel, it can be difficult ...
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Plot Summary
Frankenstein Summary. Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, writes a letter to his sister, Margaret Saville, in which he says that his crew members recently discovered a man adrift at sea. The man, Victor Frankenstein, offered to tell Walton his story. Frankenstein has a perfect childhood in Switzerland, with a loving ...
Frankenstein Book Review
The gothic novel Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818) is about a Swiss man, Victor Frankenstein, who was obsessed with natural philosophy, so much that he one day created a monster from body parts he ...
Alice McDermott Is Reading 'Frankenstein' for the First Time
Summer afternoon, a bit of shade, a novel, a tall glass of iced tea and a slice of good bread topped with fresh tomatoes. Then a piece of buttery shortbread in order to linger a bit longer before ...
Book Review: 'Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein,' by Anne Eekhout
The Mary of Eekhout's novel has a mind teeming with ghosts: her firstborn child, dead at 11 days; her famous mother, dead 11 days after Mary's own birth. She is also haunted by a summer four ...
Amazon.com: Frankenstein 1818: 9789811746635: Shelley, Mary
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin; 30 August 1797 - 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political ...

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