Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus

This truly is a classic tale of social insight, a story of one seeking acceptance and desiring companionship but being rejected and branded a monster. The thing that I liked most about this book is the fact that it's divided into two accounts, designed to view both sides of the story. The first part of the book `Frankenstein' tells the story of the life of Victor Frankenstein, the creation of Monster Frankenstein and the death of his younger brother William. A servant `Justine' has been put on trial for this murder, but Victor knows the identity of the true killer. Monster Frankenstein and Victor finally meet up and despite his desire to kill his creation, Victor is forced to listen to the monster's story, after being threatened. `The Modern Prometheus' tells the story of the Monster Frankenstein, confused and unsure from the very first day of life, found himself hiding in the woods watching people and learning how to find food, create a fire and how to differentiate between the feelings of happiness and sadness. Watching a family in poverty taught Monster Frankenstein many things and he started chopping wood and shoveling snow for the family while they slept. His loneliness finally drove him to show himself to this family who ended up running away in fear. With a mixture of loneliness and anger, he seeks out his creator, finding his way to William where he decides to kidnap him for companionship and ends up accidentally strangling him. This is where the two stories meet and monster Frankenstein pleads with Victor saying he's `a good creature turned bad by unforgiving humans who scoffed at friendship'. The monster pleads with Victor to make him a companion which he would take and never be heard from again. Victor reluctantly agrees but found it harder and harder to do, even though his family was in danger. Victor began to realize the female companion could wreck much havoc by giving birth to more monsters and refusing to be with the monster as a mate altogether. Monster Frankenstein swears revenge and goes about killing everyone close to Victor in attempt to show Victor what it feels like to be alone. As Frankenstein dies, the monster appears in his room and begs his dead body for forgiveness. In the end the story has no true villain or hero. Monster Frankenstein and Victor Frankenstein were both portrayed as hero and villain. The story also leaves you wondering on how you treat others, do our actions end up turning people into a `monsters'? Overall this was a brilliant story, although the language was at times hard to understand, it is still worth the read.

Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, first published in 1818, is well-deserved classic of science fiction and horror. Mary Shelley's work, much like the similarly influential Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (see my review of that here on Amazon for more on that tale), has almost been forgotten in its original form, as so many adaptations - most quite different from the original - have been produced in the nearly two centuries since it first appeared. The story begins with an introductory framing narrative by Robert Walton, an arctic explorer who catches a glimpse of a giant person traveling through the ice shortly before rescuing a stranded traveler who turns out to be Victor Frankenstein. Frankentein, a young Swiss student of chemistry and natural philosophy, relates his tale to Walton, who then records it in letters to his sister in England. Frankenstein describes how he created artificial life, only to be repulsed by the hideousness of the new being. Frankenstein abandons the creature, which then disappears. However, some time later, the creature begins taking revenge for his abandonment and misery upon Frankenstein's loved ones. Eventually tracking his creation down, the being tells Frankenstein his own tale of how he has attempted to befriend humans, only to be hated and driven away each time. The creature extracts a promise from Frankenstein to create a mate for him, after which the pair will disappear. Frankenstein begins to work on another creature, but eventually decides that he cannot create another monster and destroys his work. This prompts the creature to continue his campaign of revenge upon Frankenstein, eventually leading to the chase into the arctic. At this point, Walton resumes the narration and describes the final climax of the relationship between Frankenstein and his creation. The central theme of the story is the creation of life and the responsibility of the creator to his creation, as framed by the now-classic science fiction device of the artificial creation of life. Frankenstein, though the main character, could hardly be described as a hero in this narrative with his abandonment of the creature and self-centered actions, and the creature manages to illicit both sympathy from his lonely misery and horror with the lengths to which he will go to enact his revenge. Shelley does a fine job of taking the reader between these contradictions. I listened to the audio version read by Ralph Cosham, a favorite narrator of mine, and can certainly recommend Cosham's reading of the tale. Cosham's readings of the classics are always well done. Shelley's language will sound archaic to modern readers. However, if you can manage to get past that or you actually enjoy that style, Frankenstein is well worth reading. It has earned its place in popular culture and as a foundational tale in both the science fiction and horror genres. Do yourself a favor, and read the original Frankenstein. You'll find a lot more than the grunting, shambling monster of the movies. Shelley's creation is as alive, powerful, and intelligent as Frankenstein's.

2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN; OR, THE MODERN PROMETHEUS. While I did not read - or in this case listen to - the novel because of the anniversary, it does seem appropriate that I picked this time to read what is generally considered the first true science fiction novel. I would imagine that most people, myself included, first encountered FRANKENSTEIN as the 1931 movie of the same name, which is somewhat based on the novel. As we know, the movie recounts the story of a scientist who, along with his assistant, piece together a human-like creature from the pieces of dug up corpses. Most infamously, Henry Frankenstein's assistant Fritz acquires the brain of a criminal for the Creature (played by Boris Karloff), thus lending the story the conflict it needs when the Creature comes alive and begins wreaking havoc throughout the local countryside. There have been many movie and literary adaptations and spinoffs of the original FRANKENSTEIN. I am particularly fond, of course, of Mel Brooks' movie Young Frankenstein, in which Peter Boyle portrays the Creature. I'm also fond of Michael Bishop's 1994 novel BRITTLE INNINGS, which links the FRANKENSTEIN story and baseball. It probably would surprise no one who has only seen the movie that it bears only a small resemblance to Shelley's novel. Shelley's novel is told as a framing narrative. The story starts out recounting the correspondence between Robert Walton and his sister Margaret. Walton is traveling to the North Pole to gain scientific knowledge. While on the journey, he and his crew first spot a dog sled driven by a large man, then rescue a man who is near death. The man is Victor Frankenstein, who has been pursuing the man in the dog sled. As Walton nurses Frankenstein back to health, they become friends. Walton shares his story of intense desire for scientific knowledge. Frankenstein, seeing much of himself in Walton, recounts the story of how he arrived on Walton's boat and why Walton should think twice about his intense thirst for knowledge. The framing narrative becomes layered as Frankenstein first recounts his story of becoming obsessed with scientific knowledge, and especially that of how to bring life to an inanimate being. He almost quite literally becomes the "mad scientist", spending all his time researching the subject and then, once he discovers the actual process to bring a creature to life, doing nothing but what it takes to make it happen. He rarely eats and sleeps, and his relationship with his family deteriorates to almost nothing. He does finally bring the Creature to life, but once he sees it he is appalled and disgusted with what he has done, and he aims to destroy it. Next comes the Creature's story as told by the Creature itself, which takes up the bulk of the novel. Unlike Karloff's portrayal of the Creature, the novel shows the Creature learning about himself, learning about language - to the point where he becomes erudite to the point of sounding as if he had what we might call a college education - and learning how and why he is shunned by the rest of humanity. He then realizes that he is what he is because of Frankenstein (resulting in what would be a fascinating study of the nature versus nurture - or in this case, lack of nurture - discussion) and vows to deprive Victor of happiness much like Victor has deprived him of happiness. Eventually the narrative returns to Frankenstein's story and eventually Walton's, culminating with Walton meeting the Creature itself. It was somewhat surprising to me how short the novel actually is. As readers we have been trained to expect complex stories like this to be at least double the length. And while there is much detail that could be discussed - and I refuse to be concerned about spoiling a story that is over 200 years old at this point - I will stop here and let those who have yet to read the novel go ahead and do so without giving it all away. I was pleasantly surprised by FRANKENSTEIN. I guess I've been conditioned by the movie, which I've seen several times, to expect one thing while the novel turned out to be entirely something else. While the name Frankenstein usually is used to refer to the Creature, it's pretty clear that the real villain of the novel is Victor himself. His hubris in creating life from where there is none - and at the time FRANKENSTEIN was written the implication was that Victor was stepping where only God was meant to tread - resulted in a Creature who quite understandably was ticked off at his situation and who also quite understandably blamed the only person he knew to be responsible for his plight. The Creature was shown to be a compassionate being, and one who gave Frankenstein every opportunity to shut down the violence and death that was occurring around him. Yet, Victor chose to let it continue, and indeed brought so much suffering upon himself by his actions the reader might be tempted to believe that he is the Wretch (as the Creature is sometimes called) and not the Creature itself. Jim Donaldson provided an adequate narration of the novel. As I listened to the book, I felt that his voice and tone were perfect for the gothic nature of the story. His gravelly-voiced rendition of the Creature could not have been easy for him to do; at the same time, I was taken out of the story by his portrayal of the Creature. He sounded like a crotchety old man, which does not fit with my image of the Creature. That could be due to me being influenced by Karloff's rendition of the Creature, although his gutteral roars do sound like an old man too, I suppose. If you've never read the book, I suggest you do so. It's interesting to contrast the novel and the movie, and of course that's something we do with today's movies anyway - from Lord of the Rings to Hunger Games to anything else. I can see why this is considered a classic, and it's well worth the time for you to read it for yourself and, hopefully, come to the same conclusion.

Readers will be surprised to read this nineteenth century "horror story," because the English woman Mary W. Shelley (1797-1851) did not write this book as it is shown in the many motion pictures that were made of it. She published this gothic tale, which many scholars see as the earliest version of a science fiction novel when she was only 21. Scholars think that she wrote it as an attack against the emerging industrial revolution, but perhaps, as we will see, it is more than that. The story is written in the delightful style of its time, like the mystery tale of the Englishman Wilke Collins, which was serialized in 1859-1860 and published in 1860, The Woman in White, which some scholars say is the first detective story, while others give the honor to Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). Mary Shelley became the wife of the famous poet Percy Shelley after writing her novel. She subtitled it The Modern Prometheus. According to some but not all Greek myths, Prometheus was a giant who created people and latter brought them fire. It appears that the Prometheus in the tale is the creator Frankenstein, who was not a giant in height, but in intellect. Most people consider Prometheus a hero, but not Shelley. She thought of fire as being bad because it caused people to kill and eat animals and gave people more implements with which to wage war and murder people. Frankenstein tells the story to a man who saved him while he is pursuing the man he created. He warns the man not to pursue scientific goals that will harm humanity. The Shelley story is about an educated man of science who was born in Switzerland and educated in a German university, who is interested in helping people. Everyone who meets him likes him. He comes from an educated amicable family who love him, and he loves them. He searches for an answer to what is life. He wonders if he can create life, and succeeds in doing so. He creates an eight-foot man, who is never named in the novel. He is repulsed by the man he creates and thinks of him as a monster as soon as the man is alive. All people who later see his creation are also repulsed and this causes the man to hide and live alone and it accounts for the profound loneliness that the man feels. His creator becomes depressed at what he has done, rushes away from his lab, and is sick in bed for four months. He is Frankenstein. The unnamed man he created leaves. Frankenstein returns home from Germany and discovers that someone killed his younger brother. He is convinced that the man he created did it, and pursues him to kill him. He meets his creation and is unable to harm him because the man is larger and stronger than he. His creation tells Frankenstein that he killed his brother by mistake. The boy saw him, was disgusted at seeing him, and started shouting. All he did was place his hand over the boy's mouth. He tells how he has been traveling about for more than a year, found that every human despises him, and has become very lonely. He begs Frankenstein to make him a female companion because he, like the biblical Adam, can't live alone. Frankenstein agrees. However, when he finishes making the female he becomes frightened that two monsters, as he thinks of them, could harm mankind. So he destroys the female. The man he created is enraged and vows vengeance against Frankenstein for destroying his life. What happens to Frankenstein and the man he created, I will leave for readers to read and enjoy. Will the creation carry out his threat? If yes, how? Which of the two will outlive the other? What will the survivor do? Is it right to call Frankenstein's creation a monster because of the way he looks? Readers may also want to ask themselves: is Mary Shelly's pessimistic approach to scientific advances justified? Perhaps there is another interpretation of the story. It may be an examination with comments upon the creation of man. The first biblical creation Adam is unnamed, like Frankenstein's creation. Although most people think his name is Adam, the Hebrew word adam actually means "human." There is an ancient Jewish legend that when God decided to create this adam, the angels objected that people were not sufficiently good. This parallels the rejection of Frankenstein's creation by society. Like Frankenstein's creation, the adam was also lonely and wants a companion. Today, many people, like Frankenstein's creation feel alienated and lonely, and live a life without meaning. This is something to think about.

Very beautiful edition of Frankenstein! The detail is just amazing and the quality is wonderful…I love the beautiful blue throughout the book and the blue on the inside, just stunning! I kept seeing reviews about the tag on the back and how it left a mark after but when I removed mine everything came out fine…so I’m very happy with that! The book came in great condition…I’m very excited to be adding this to my Frankenstein collection!

This is well written, but it was tedious to read. I would have abandoned it were it not classic literature.

Mary Shelley's timeless classic, Frankenstein, stands as a haunting testament to the human pursuit of knowledge and the consequences that accompany unchecked ambition. With its gripping narrative and profound exploration of moral and existential themes, this Gothic masterpiece continues to captivate readers even two centuries after its initial publication. Set against the backdrop of a gloomy and desolate landscape, the story follows Victor Frankenstein, a young and ambitious scientist consumed by his desire to conquer death and unlock the secrets of life itself. Driven by his insatiable thirst for knowledge, Victor embarks on a perilous journey that leads him to create a being out of stolen body parts. Yet, this act of creation soon turns into a nightmare, as the creature awakens with a bewildered consciousness, abandoned by its creator and left to navigate a hostile world alone. Shelley skillfully delves into the complex psyches of both Victor and his creature, exploring their parallel narratives and the consequences of their actions. Through Victor's internal struggle with guilt and remorse, Shelley exposes the moral ambiguity inherent in human nature, forcing readers to question the ethical implications of scientific advancement. The creature, often portrayed as a monster, is paradoxically both sympathetic and terrifying—a tortured soul seeking acceptance and love in a world that rejects him based on his outward appearance. The novel's narrative structure, presented through a series of letters and firsthand accounts, enhances the sense of impending doom and creates a chilling atmosphere of suspense. Shelley's evocative prose paints vivid images, immersing the reader in a world of darkness and despair. Her exploration of the themes of abandonment, revenge, and the nature of humanity provokes profound introspection and challenges the boundaries of empathy. Frankenstein stands as a cautionary tale, cautioning against the dangers of unchecked scientific progress and the moral responsibility that accompanies human creation. It serves as a timeless reminder that knowledge without wisdom and compassion can lead to disastrous consequences. In conclusion, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a remarkable work of literature that continues to resonate with readers today. Its exploration of human ambition, the moral implications of scientific advancement, and the search for identity and acceptance makes it a thought-provoking and unsettling read. With its beautifully crafted narrative and complex characters, Frankenstein remains a masterpiece that forces us to confront our own humanity and the ethical dilemmas that arise when playing with the forces of life and death.

Robert Walton failed writer turned sailor, opens the story by writing to his sister Margaret. He is sailing far north, when the crew rescue Victor Frankenstein who is lost upon an ice flow. Victor is a broken man with a story to tell. Even if you haven't seen the movies, even if you haven't read the book, you're probably familiar with the concept of Frankenstein: a mad scientist sews a body together and restores life to dead limbs, creating a hideous monster. This book wasn't at all what I was expecting. After Victor's mother dies he sent away to university where he studies science and discovers how to reanimate the dead. He becomes obsessed with his science experiment shunning all social contact and working tirelessly on proving his theory right. This story has been so puffed up that I expected more from the reanimation scene. But to my surprise there was little or no detail on how Victor figured out the key to life, to my greater surprise, Victor is instantly horrified by his creation and for much of the story they are separate. Victor falls ill and the creature runs away. The monster winds up living in a pig sty attached to a cottage, where he watches, learns from, and grows to love the family that lives there. Meanwhile Victor is nursed back to health by a friend. By the time Victor is healthy, Frankenstein has been chased from his refuge. Victor is returning home to Geneva and the creature is hell bent on vengeance. This story was sadder than it was scary, and I admit I sympathized with the monster. The monster didn't have a choice, he was brought to life by an egomaniac who then rejected him. He struggled to survive, to find a family, but being hideous there was no one who could understand, no one who could love him. Everywhere he goes, he's met with hatred until he becomes the monster everyone thinks he is. A similar idea is displayed with Justine; accused of murder, she's eventually convinced to confess to a crime she didn't commit. It's an important concept: hate and ignorance breeds hate and violence. You have to wonder if Victor had tried to care for his creation, would his creation have turned out differently? I also want to point to female characters versus male characters in the storyline. In classic lit, it's pretty much expected not to expect a whole lot from the ladies. And at first glance, this follows the usual generalization. Women as beautiful, compliant, care takers. But take a closer look at the men in this story. First Robert Walton, who writes his sister complaining that he has no friends on the ship; he requires a male companion who is an intellectual equal. He's failed at being a writer, and he's on the brink of being a failed explorer, but he can't recognize that someone else on the crew might add value to his own life. Victor Frankenstein spends most of his time talking about how brilliant he is, and how no one can ever compare... But he consistently fails. He created a monster but failed to control it. He watched as a maid is punished for crime she didn't commit, failed to tell the truth and free her, somehow managed to make her execution all about himself. Despite being intellectually superior he was incapable of understanding that his creature was planning to make Victor suffer and Victor failed to protect those closest to him even after he'd been warned... Now take another look at the women. Elizabeth takes over the mother figure role when Frankenstein's mother dies. She's consistently willing to sacrifice her happiness for the good of her family. She doesn't try to be a good mother, she just is. Then there is Justine who fled from an abusive mother to help take care of the Frankenstein family in their time of need, and later returned to her mother, when her mother needs help. There is also Saffie the Arabian woman, born to a rich father, who refused to join a harem and bravely fled from a patriarchal society. She ran to a country whose language she couldn't speak, in hopes of marrying the man who maybe loved her, to help care for the family that promised her free will if they had nothing else to offer. Although the male characters are centerstage, the female characters are doing brave things successfully, while the males flounder. What does it say that the failures of man are broadcast loudly while the successes of the women are merely glanced at? A study of snobbish male ego, maybe, or maybe it's a reminder that women are hardly inferior. I also thought it was interesting that the monster, was the only male character who considered a female to be a suitable companion equal to himself. That's right, The Monster, whose presence no one in their right minds could bare, and his only request was for a lady friend. Again I wonder: How would the monster think and act had Victor raised him? Victor, who even at Death's door, could not put away his sense of self importance and accept friendship... Overall I enjoyed this read, it was surprising and I'm glad I finally got around to this story. I suspect this is one of those stories where you see and understand more, the more times you read it