Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein

3.29 of 5 stars 3.29 · rating details · 539 ratings · 144 reviews

When two nineteenth-century Oxford students—Victor Frankenstein, a serious researcher, and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley—form an unlikely friendship, the result is a tour de force that could only come from one of the world's most accomplished and prolific authors.
This haunting and atmospheric novel opens with a heated discussion, as Shelley challenges the conventionally r...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published October 6th 2009 by Nan A. Talese (first published 2008)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009

38th out of 100 books — 123 voters

The Complete Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd

The Truth Behind the Monster

4th out of 16 books — 8 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,280)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 06, 2009 Felice rated it 2 of 5 stars

How do you feel about things that go bump in the night? Me, not so good. I am a coward. I am Chief Coward from Cowardville. I avoid scary movies and scary books and scary people too. So...as much I was looking forward to reading Peter Ackroyd's new book The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein the F-word frightened me off a bit. But then the lure was too strong and I caved.

In this retelling of Frankenstein on that famous ghost story filled night when Mr and Mrs Shelley were staying with Byron and Mar...more

like 3 likes · see review

Jul 29, 2012 Kristen rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book was a terrible disappointment! I thought the description sounded intriguing, and like it would provide some interesting and more in-depth understanding of Dr. Frankenstein.

Well, it's in-depth all right! It takes the author almost 100 pages (a full third of the book) to describe Victor's early life and education. Unfortunately, that part of his life (at least as this author describes it) is the most boring, dry painful thing I've read in a while. I can't imagine how Frankenstein possibl...more

like · see review

Apr 16, 2012 Cheryl Gatling added it

Two things about this book. One, Mary Shelley's original telling of the Frankenstein story is better. So if your main interest is learning how a 19th century amateur scientist re-animates dead human flesh, and what that might mean for society and religion, for the creature and the created, then you won't want to miss the classic. But the second thing about this book is that there is a surprise at the end, which makes it difficult to review without giving it away. As in Atonement, when you get to...more

like · see review

May 19, 2011 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-literature

Initially, I found it difficult to get into a "reading rhythm" with this book, but once I did, I found in completely engaging. This is a retelling of Shelley's horror classic, and the author has made liberal use of real-life figures, such as Lord Byron, Polidori, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and, of course, Mary Shelley herself.

Phenomenally descriptive, many passages read like poetry; this author is a master at setting scene, and one is able to visualize, and almost smell, the dark, filthy streets of L...more

like 2 likes · see review

Apr 14, 2011 Abi Rhodes rated it 2 of 5 stars

During a stormy and decadent evening beside Lake Geneva, in 1816, a conversation between Mary Shelley, her husband, Lord Byron, and friends turned to experimentation on human subjects. They discussed rumours that Erasmus Darwin had re-animated the dead, and then began to read Germanic ghost stories to one another. It is said, on this night, that Mary Shelley had a terrifying dream, which bore Victor Frankenstein. The next morning she recounted her nightmare. She had seen ‘the pale student of unh...more During a stormy and decadent evening beside Lake Geneva, in 1816, a conversation between Mary Shelley, her husband, Lord Byron, and friends turned to experimentation on human subjects. They discussed rumours that Erasmus Darwin had re-animated the dead, and then began to read Germanic ghost stories to one another. It is said, on this night, that Mary Shelley had a terrifying dream, which bore Victor Frankenstein. The next morning she recounted her nightmare. She had seen ‘the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together’.

The ‘pale student’, recreated in Peter Ackroyd’s novel, is a man obsessed with raising the dead, due to the untimely death of his twin sister, followed closely by that of his father. He has a split personality (Jekyll and Hyde style), and has been given no soul (evil or otherwise) by his creator.

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein begins in stormy Geneva, and quickly transfers to rural Oxford. Here, the titled protagonist meets a certain young Bysshe, whose characterisation by Ackroyd, I feel, lacks the depth and impetuosity of the well-known poet. Shelley introduces Frankenstein to his secular view of the world, which prompts the latter to begin dismantling his religious background and start to question the essence of life. ‘What if it were possible to endow the human form with life by means of the immortal spark. Would it be deemed unholy? This claim I dismissed’, ruminates Victor in the very first chapter.

Shelley disappears for a few chapters, leaving Frankenstein, and the reader, alone to follow an unholy path towards scientific discovery. Frankenstein moves from Oxford to Jeremy Street in London, and obtains a ‘manufactory’ in Limehouse, a dodgy area by the docks. It is here he begins to get serious about his studies. He procures dead bodies from a thinly described trio of ‘resurrectionists’, Miller, Boothroyd and Lane, whom he seeks out in the Smithfield Tavern. They bring him bodies once a week to the watery residence on the Thames where he conducts his experiments. After a few gory tests on subjects of varying sizes, Frankenstein finally acquires the body of a young doctor by the name of Jack Keats. Thus, the monster of Ackroyd’s novel is born.

What ensues – the murder of Shelley’s first wife, the meeting of Byron and Polidori, and then travelling with them and Shelley to Geneva – does not capture the terrifying tale told by Mary Shelley in her own writings. The physical and mental torment suffered by the monster and Frankenstein is simply not portrayed in Ackroyd’s novel. The night that originally gave birth to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is represented here as little more than a parlour game, which left me wondering why Ackroyd had included these famous figures at all.

The nightmarish element that I had expected from the title was not forthcoming. In fact, the only hairs that stood on end during the description of the electrical experimentation upon dead bodies were the ones on the dead themselves! Even the shadows, which follow Frankenstein around on his lonely evening walks, do not convey any of the menace for which they were contrived.

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein adds nothing new to what we already know about Frankenstein and his monster, and it fails to flesh out the background to its central figure in any inspiring way. Numerous exchanges with Shelley detract from the development of a great idea – the fictional autobiography of a classic literary figure. Ackroyd’s altering of the monster is simply unnecessary. The novel could have taken us up to the point of creation, and not beyond – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein requires no rewriting.(less)

like · see review

Jun 20, 2010 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: cannonball-read

Have you ever read a book and have just been entirely unsure as to why the author decided to take the time to write it? That’s pretty much how I feel about The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd. A slightly adjusted retelling of the Frankenstein story by Mary Shelley, the novel does little to improve or grow upon the original story. Essentially, Victor Frankenstein, a young scholar from Switzerland, enrolls in Oxford, where he meets the revolutionary poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Co...more

like 2 likes · see review

Oct 18, 2009 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

Ackroyd, Peter. THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN. (2009). ***. Ackroyd is a highly respected British author and known for his penetrating history of landmarks of London and life there during the Victorian Era. This is the first book of fiction of his that I have read. After about 100 pages, I swore it would be my last, but I later found out that some of his earlier books had been short-listed for the Booker Prize, and I had to change my mind. This novel takes a somewhat different approach to...more Ackroyd, Peter. THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN. (2009). ***. Ackroyd is a highly respected British author and known for his penetrating history of landmarks of London and life there during the Victorian Era. This is the first book of fiction of his that I have read. After about 100 pages, I swore it would be my last, but I later found out that some of his earlier books had been short-listed for the Booker Prize, and I had to change my mind. This novel takes a somewhat different approach to the legendary classic story of Frankenstein’s creation of what we now call a monster. In this retelling, the good doctor became enamored of the recent discoveries in electricity, especially those of Galvani. The young Victor is working on obtaining his doctorate degree, but finds that he is not interested in all of the theoretical information about medicine that he would need to learn to achieve his degree. His interest is focused on the practical aspects of anatomy and physiology and, most importantly, dissection. When he learns of the power of electricity to excite the muscles of dead creatures so that movement occurs, he believes that through diligent research he can develop ways to utilize this power to bring life back to a dead subject. He experiments at first with lower orders and works his way up to an ape, and finally achieves success of a sort. When he finishes designing the appropriate equipment, he is ready to try it out on a human subject. He then turns to the group of grave robbers known as “resurrection men,” for his next experiments. He obviously becomes successful in re-animating a dead body, but now has to face the dire succession of acts caused by his new creation. Throughout the story, we learn of his relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley and, later, Lord Byron. He was a classmate with Shelley during his brief stay at the university and discovered a common bond between them of rebelliousness and a proclivity to pursue the unconventional. Written in the style of the period, the novel comes across as authentic, but, unfortunately, boring. You are constantly reminded that readers of the period had lots of time to read without the distractions of our modern age, and that this type of novel would have been their “thriller” equivalent. Not so today.(less)

like · see review

Aug 16, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: london, ackroyd, lit-english, historical-fiction-1700-1900, magic-realism

What would've happened if Dr. Frankenstein had actually lived and knew the Shelleys? That's the question that Peter Ackroyd answers in this book.

Frankenstein travels to study at Oxford where he meets Percy Shelley. The two hit it off and become friends. What then follows is a commingling of Shelley's life with the story of Frankenstein. It's a surprising good book, and does seem to play a little with the opinion by some that Mary Shelley did not write Frankenstein. (Some people believe it was Pe...more

like 3 likes · see review

Dec 02, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: jan-feb-2010

Peter Ackroyd's fascination with long-dead literary greats is clearly evident, and with The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, he has crafted another smart, well-written, and entertaining tribute. Critics thought Ackroyd's depiction of the tragic scientist was somber and authentic, a far cry from the cackling megalomaniac often portrayed in popular media. One notable voice of dissent came from the Independent, which felt that the increasingly widespread practice of using another author's character...more

like · see review

Nov 10, 2012 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found that this was a book that never really used, what was a very good idea, to it's full potential. Peter Ackroyd is a very good author and I often enjoy his books, but this isn't one of his best. The idea is that Victor Frankenstein was a real person and not just a literary character. Many will know the story of how Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in the summer of 1816, a summer she famously spent with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where M...more

like · see review

Aug 19, 2010 Kay Stopforth rated it 3 of 5 stars

I feel kind of mean only giving this three stars, as it was absorbing, atmospheric and well written, but it didn't engage me on an emotional level at all.
This was a clever attempt at retelling the famous story - perhaps a little too clever. The Shelleys feature prominently, with Byron and Polidori also making key appearances. None of them is portrayed particularly sympathetically, except perhaps Mary, but she's not in it that much. Shelley is depicted as a narcissistic twit, and Byron as a chil...more

like 1 like · see review

Jan 08, 2010 THE rated it 3 of 5 stars

The multi-talented Peter Ackroyd, distinguished British biographer, critic, cultural historian, and novelist, offers one of his most inventive works since The Trial of Eliabeth Cree (1995). As his recent historical novels reveal, his interests are broad--the Lambs, Heinrich Schliemann, John Milton among many others--and he has an expansive imagination, prolific pen, and a wide-ranging knowledge. In this work, he demonstrates his various skills by retelling the Frankenstein tale complete with the...more

like 1 like · see review

Apr 14, 2013 Nick Phillips rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've got to be honest this is not one of Ackroyd's best. The characters are sufficiently well drawn and the counterfactual references are as witty and knowing as ever but there is something effort-less about the plotting and storyline. The Frankenstein story along with the link to the Shelleys and Lord Byron are well documented both in literature and on screen and this sadly adds nothing new.

Where it is most interesting is in the telling of Frankenstein's early days which are the more developed...more

like · see review

Jul 21, 2010 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really liked this book, but knocked off a star because it goes on for a bit too long. I never really got into Mary Shelley's version, which I read about 15 years ago, and barely managed to finish (slim volume though it was). I seem to recall that the original was written in a way that seemed very far removed from Frankenstein and his creation. This one puts you right in the middle of it all, in Frankenstein's head and in the middle of 19th century scientific experimentation. For anyone assigne...more

like · see review

Nov 02, 2009 Satia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd is a retelling of the gothic classic Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. As with all retellings, one approaches the new version with trepidation. Is there a need to retell a story that has already been told so well? Will this version offer anything new or interesting? What, if anything will be lost in translation?

When I began the novel, I stepped back a bit from my own expectations and tried to allow Ackroyd to give me the pleasure of revisiting a...more The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd is a retelling of the gothic classic Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. As with all retellings, one approaches the new version with trepidation. Is there a need to retell a story that has already been told so well? Will this version offer anything new or interesting? What, if anything will be lost in translation?

When I began the novel, I stepped back a bit from my own expectations and tried to allow Ackroyd to give me the pleasure of revisiting a story I found compelling and provocative. I quickly realized that story is told in first person by Victor Frankenstein I was put off. After all, for all intents and purposes, Shelley’s version is told in the first person. Is there a need to tell the same story in the same point-of-view? My resistance grew, mostly because what details were added are lu1rid or meant to be salacious (after all, Shelley could not dare write in detail about erections and penises, could she?). Sadly, they are also predictable. Characters enter the stage with the inevitability of their future clearly evident.

But of course one would expect a story that is retold to be somewhat predictable. And the fact is, for those readers who are disinclined to read classic literature because it is tedious or tiresome or the tone too archaic, Ackroyd’s choice to tell this story again serves a purpose. He departs enough from the classic by inviting Mary Shelley herself into the cast of characters, along with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. The flavor of London is very well written. One cannot argue that Ackroyd knows his history and contextualizes the story both in content and voice. His ability to weave details leaves few, if any, stones unturned. And although the conclusion is different from the original novel’s, it is not as surprising as it should have been. (How surprising would it have been had the author chosen to carry the story forth to the same ending, one that in Shelley’s version occurs off the stage of the page? Perhaps bringing something new to an expected ending is too much to ask but if the ending must be changed can it not be changed in such a way as to surprise the reader?)

What this retelling lacks is the spiritual and philosophical implications of Shelley’s original vision. Given the evolution of society, the threat of science over religion is perhaps no longer an issue but there is still so much room for debate on the ethical implications of where science crosses lines of morality in the face of necessity. At what point does the need for knowledge become more necessary than the need for morality? And in a world where we can create virtual selves by simply logging into a website, what are the implications of revivifying something that is dead?

In the end, Ackroyd presents a novel that waters down the original making it perhaps more palatable for the masses but offering little in the way of real meaning. A good summer beach book for those who don’t want their summer reading light. Or perhaps the type of book one would read to fill a rainy afternoon in autumn. But for my tastes, I’ll stick with the original which is, to this day, a more provocative story than many being published today.
(less)

like 1 like · see review

Aug 03, 2009 Jayaprakash Satyamurthy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Now this is more like it.

Peter Ackroyd makes Victor Frankenstein a student at Cambridge, which enables Victor to make the acquaintance of Percy Bysshe Shelley and his various associates, including a certain Mary Godwin, and also lets Ackroyd find a way to shift the bulk of the action to his own home turf, London. There's an interestingly Dickensian overtone at times. Ackroyd's narrative is substantial, but poised, without waste and enriched with excellent secondary characters, real and fictional...more

like 2 likes · see review

Dec 24, 2012 Michael Mallory rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Arguably the greatest living authority on the city of London, Peter Ackroyd delights in using the city as a backdrop for his reimaginings of classic Victorian literature, of which this is one. Even if you know the original and have become oversaturated by the myriad films, "The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein" offers a whole new take on the classic story, postulating for fictional purposes that Frankenstein was alive and well and living in London, and knew Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron...more

like · see review

Dec 06, 2009 Benbo rated it 3 of 5 stars

In some ways I feel that in trying to breathe a new life into the story of Frankenstein, Peter Ackroyd has mostly succeeded only in making his own awkward monster. The beginning of the book is slow, and I was not really drawn in until the creature of the story emerges, mainly because the creature is the only character that I found fully drawn and riveting. It is the only source of real drama; everything else comes off as superfluous. Partly I think this results from Ackroyd's choice to tell the...more

like 1 like · see review

Nov 05, 2009 Kayeb rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It reminded me of a conversation with a friend not so long ago, that it takes a series of small steps or yeses to reach an outcome, and as this story unfolds, we see Victor Frankenstein making just that...one step towards the outcome at a time.

Questions are raised.....is this a creation or the creator that wreaks havoc? what is the nature of human consciousness? What is the power of a relationship...in this case that between Percy Bysshe Shelley and Victor?
We al...more

like 1 like · see review

May 17, 2012 Zaynah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Started out reading this for class, then I was reading it for fun ... Then the twist at the end happened and I felt like I'd just watched that movie with Johnny Depp, The Window or whatever. I wasn't quite as bad, but almost. The thing that saves the book from its own ending is the fact that it's a retelling of a story that makes more sense than the original - as my teacher said, he couldn't get over the original monster learning to read by watching a child being taught how to read through a win...more

like · see review

Oct 07, 2011 Spiros rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: aficionados of literary homage

Shelves: bins, londoncalling

Another of Ackroyd's inconsequential novels, evidently written while he was at work on The Thames. This one is more successful than any of his others, with the exception of Milton in America; it is an elegantly crafted parlor game, set amongst the circle of Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, with appearances by John Polidori, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft. It features a rather deflating twist-in-the-tale, which I should have anticipated, since Ackroyd gives the monster...more

like · see review

Sep 07, 2010 Pamela rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Dec 20, 2009 Chazzle rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Frankenstein fans

I'm probably being too harsh on this book, since the author clearly has talent and writes quite charmingly. But I'm just really angry at the ending. Maybe someday I'll get over it.

(3 stars is probably a fairer rating. But I try to rate books on emotion. That's why Sheldon gets 5 stars and Shakespeare gets 3 stars. So there. Sue me.)

Also, I never read Mary Shelley's version, so I can't compare.

Major theme in the book - the utter disregard of wisdom, esp. religious wisdom; Victor F goes "straight...more

like · see review

Dec 15, 2012 Michi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: free-or-borrowed

It was not what I was expecting, but it's a good story.

If you don't want to spoil the story for yourself, only read the synopsis off the book. Skip all the reviewer comments and editorial jabbering that appears on the jacket copy.

If you like unreliable, first-person narrators, this is a book for you. If you like lengthy philosophical and pseudo-scientific discourse, this is a great choice for you. If you like historical figures popping up in your fantasy novels, read this book. You get a whole...more

like · see review

Jan 22, 2012 Petty Witter rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A bit of a hit and miss affair throughout, the author I felt did not bring anything new to the original Frankenstein story written by Mary Shelley but instead seemed to piece together bits of just about every adaptation there was.
That said, it was great fun that Ackroyd chose to combine fictional characters with real life historical people including Mary Shelley herself, poet, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.
It's the ending though that has me in a quandary as I can't quite decide if it was a touch...more

like · see review

Feb 23, 2011 Koorihime-sama rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: re-read, checked-out-from-library, hardcover

CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.
2ND REVIEW. 1ST REVIEW IS HERE.

Review/Rating:

4 out of 5

After Victor Frankenstein goes to London to study at Oxford, he meets Percy Bysshe Shelley. They become fast friends, but with Shelley's radical views, will Victor get an idea that will put him on the road to darkness?

This is the second time I'm reviewing this because I want to. :X Actually, I'm re-doing some (most) of my reviews so that I can make them (hopefully) better. With this one, I will com...more CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.
2ND REVIEW. 1ST REVIEW IS HERE.

Review/Rating:

4 out of 5

After Victor Frankenstein goes to London to study at Oxford, he meets Percy Bysshe Shelley. They become fast friends, but with Shelley's radical views, will Victor get an idea that will put him on the road to darkness?

This is the second time I'm reviewing this because I want to. :X Actually, I'm re-doing some (most) of my reviews so that I can make them (hopefully) better. With this one, I will compare it to the original a little bit more.

Anyways, in this retelling of Frankenstein, Peter Ackroyd makes it out so that a fictional character actually knows historically accurate people. I still find that part of this part kind of intriguing, and it also made this book rather interesting than if the author just told it through Victor Frankenstein's and a little bit from his monster's perspective. However, now that I read the original, I don't know what perspective is better since they both were interesting, so they both get equal points in that.

Although how both Mary Shelley and Peter Ackroyd told the story gets equal points, the descriptions and the growth of the characters actually goes to Peter Ackroyd. With Mary Shelley's, it is mostly someone re-telling Frankenstein's story as Frankenstein tells him it, so the growth and descriptions really don't have that much to grow. So, basically, I like how Peter Ackroyd tells it because the way he makes the characters grow appeals to me more than the original. Also, in Ackroyd's version, the person who turned out to be the "monster" was someone Victor Frankenstein knew and maybe even friends with. I found that also very interesting and even gave the monster even more of an identity than Shelley's version. The characters are also completely different in Ackroyd's version. It has the same thing happen to a character in each book, but the circumstance and character are off. I also like how Ackroyd did his version in that aspect as well since it had a little bit more depth and development than the original.

Let's see, some other things that are different, but I wish Ackroyd put in his version. In Mary Shelley's version, I actually felt like crying and feeling pity towards both Frankenstein and his monster. However, with Ackroyd's version, it had less emotion. Also, the ending is more disappointing and confusing than the original. The ending in the original is more emotional and appeals more to me.

Now that I had a chance to read the original, I think it would have been better if some of the original's aspects, like some of the emotion, was in this book. So, I rated it a four stars this time because, despite the original re-telling thing, I like the emotion and ending of the original Frankenstein more.(less)

like · see review

Dec 05, 2009 Annji rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Not his best by a long shot and even the descriptions of early 18th century London feel (surprisingly for Ackroyd) a bit photocopied and yet this is good madcap fun. A sort of re-imagining of Mary Shelley's novel, we see Victor Frankenstein as an Oxford dropout, experimenting with corpses in a warehouse in Limehouse. He's friends with Shelley, meets Byron and there's even an ostler-cum-surgeon's apprentice called Jack Keat who dies from tuberculosis and then....well, read if you want to find out...more

like 1 like · see review

Sep 02, 2012 Tracey Mathias rated it 4 of 5 stars

wow. Frankenstein through a set of distorting mirrors: the plot reflects the Frankenstein plot pretty closely but changes the setting to early C19th London and introduces Shelley and his set as main characters, so you get the strangesst of effects: Frankstein as a friend of Shelley, Mary Shelley a character in her own plot, Frankenstein a house guest at the Villa Diodati.... At first I was tempted to think 'hang on, this is just a retelling of Frankenstein' but these reflections and distortions...more

like · see review

Jul 27, 2011 Stuart rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

This was pretty tedious. Like Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, it relies on many real people to populate its pages (Here, we have Shelley, Byron and so on). And, like quicksilver, it is written in a slightly old-style fashion. Perhaps that is what made it tedious, because it should have been good. it starts with a great idea - re-imagining the story of Frankenstein as if he had been a real companion of Shelley and Byron, but the execution just did not interest me. I had to force myself to read to...more

like · see review

Jan 02, 2013 Alexandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2013

I haven't actually read Frankenstein, so I'm not in a position to comment on just how accurate Ackroyd has been in capturing the sentiment or atmosphere of Shelley's original, nor on how many clever little asides he worked in. I did catch a few, but no doubt missed many.

Anyway, this situate Victor Frankenstein as a vibrant and intelligent young man, who goes to Oxford to follow his natural science love and while there befriends a certain Percy Bysshe Shelley. Through him he comes into contact wi...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 42 43 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (15)

More editions...

Genres

Historical Fiction

38 users

Horror

21 users

Science Fiction

6 users

Fantasy

5 users

Contemporary

4 users

Literature

3 users

Adult Fiction

3 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

3 users

Literary Fiction

3 users

Writing > Books About Books

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd CBE is an English novelist and biographer with a particular interest in the history and culture of London.

Peter Ackroyd's mother worked in the personnel department of an engineering firm, his father having left the family home when Ackroyd was a baby. He was reading newspapers by the age of 5 and, at 9, wrote a play about Guy Fawkes. Reputedly, he first realized he was gay at the age...more

More about Peter Ackroyd...

Books by Peter Ackroyd

London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Casebook of V...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Casebook of Victor...

“The endless chatter of this journey had wearied me.” — 6 people liked it

“Under the force of the imagination, nature itself is changed.” — 1 person liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
avg rating	preview: The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein Goodreads rating: 3.29 (539 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6504154-the-casebook-of-victor-frankenstein?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320398814l/6504154.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6504154-the-casebook-of-victor-frankenstein?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd[/url]

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website