Frankenstein

Mary Shelly

Excuse me? I thought I knew this story.  I have seen the movies despite my dislike of horror. Anybody living in our culture knows the story of Frankenstein and his creature without having read the book. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

This is not the story of a man creating artificial organic life. This is not the story of grave robbing, stitching together body parts, dank, dark castles, thunderstorms and electricity bringing life where there was none. In fact, bringing the creature to life probably has the least focus in this novel. This horror story deals instead with Victor Frankenstein. Why did he bring the creature to life? What happened afterwords?

Horror or not, this is a fascinating book. I still do not know where Mary Shelly got this vision. The fear is in the telling and the build up, not the actual acts of violence, let alone the reactions to the violence. The creature is not the innocent I expected. Nor is he to be blamed. This is an experiment gone wrong, and all are to be pitied.

If you have not read this book, you do not know the story. Find it and discover the true story of Frankenstein and his monster.

After you've read this book, visit . You'll like the tongue-in-cheek abridged version of this novel you can read in a minute or less. Great humor!

7/19/10

I received this note in my email:

Hi Jandy,

My name is Celina from onlinecollege.org. We wanted to let you know that we featured your blog in one of our recent articles on our own blog. (100 Book Recommendations to Get You Through the Summer), is linked below and could be a fun way to share this announcement with your readers.

(http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/07/14/100-book-recommendations-to-get-you-through-the-summer/)

If you find something interesting or similar, please let me know.

Thanks

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Thanks, Celina - Look for the link to Frankenstein down near the bottom where they list science fiction and fantasy titles.

8/12/2012

Currently I'm taking an online college course from Coursera on science fiction and fantasy. This is one of the books we're studying, so I re-read it.

This time I found some of the descriptions of the countryside and nature a bit tedious. That's because I'm used to more modern books that move more quickly. But Dr. Frankenstein's story of himself and his interactions with the creations are still excellent.

Is Frankenstein really a horror story? Sure, in some ways. But it's also the story of arrogance and lonliness. Frankenstein is arrogant enough to create life; then he casts it aside and ignores it. The creature whom Frankenstein never bothers to name is lonely and driven to revenge. In a different manner the question is again is a person who he is because he was born that way or because his enviornment turned him that way - nature vs nurture?

Frankenstein is one of those novels that reveals more each time it is read. It's a layered novel with the story itself and all the meanings underneath that can also be discovered. It's not a quick, easy read that modern readers find on best sellers lists in the early 21st century. Even so, it's worth picking up and discovering for yourself.