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Sep 18, 2011

Hannah added it

No stars. That's right. Zero, zip. nada.

It's been almost 30 years since I've detested a book this much. I didn't think anything could be worse then Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Seems I'm never too old to be wrong. This time, I don't have the excuse that I was forced to read this for high school lit. class. Oh no, this time I read this of my own volition and for fun. Yeah, fun. Kinda like sticking bamboo shoots between my fingernails type of fun. Watching paint dry fun. Going More...

12 comments like (76 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

Stephen rated it:

My apologies, but this review is going to be a bit frantic due to my brain being so oxygen-starved by the novel’s breath-stealing gorgeousness that I'm feeling a bit light-headed. So please forgive the random thoughts.

First: Mary Shelley…I love you!!

Second: Dear Hollywood - you lying dung pile of literature-savaging, no talent hacks…you got this all wrong. Please learn to read and get yourself a copy of the source material before you FUBAR it again.

Third: My More...

73 comments like (102 people liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

Ceridwen rated it:

I first read Frankenstein in a British Survey class when I was nineteen. I'd just hacked my way through the 17th and 18th Centuries, bolting down huge chunks of the raw meat of “Paradise Lost,” the Romantic poets, and early novels. It was perfect time to read Frankenstein, as all of her source material was still digesting in my brain. It was also perfect because Shelly herself was nineteen when she wrote this. This precipitated a sort of pre-life crisis for me. Here's this book, this amazing, fl More...

71 comments like (58 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Lou rated it:

A great read! highly recommended!.
Stephen King in his Danse Macabre novel mentions this as one of three essential horror classics, he says they are ' The Vampire (Dracula), the Werewolf (Jekyl and Hyde) and the thing with no name (Frankenstein).'
The book is so much better than what the movie tries to communicate. Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who is a brilliant scientist with an obsession: tries to play God, by creating a living human being all by himself. But all does not go to More...

17 comments like (41 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Manny rated it:

"Pray tell me your story," I said, "if it will not weary you overmuch."

He fixed me with an eye still firm of purpose. "I had long been fascinated by the dark arts of Parody and Homage," he began. "I studied the works of the masters. Juvenal, Swift, Beerbohm, Douglas Adams... I curse the day when I discovered the Grimoire of John Sladek mouldering in an old bookshop. It was then my plan began to take shape..."

He broke off, racked by More...

16 comments like (35 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2008

Trevor rated it:

I don’t really know what I was expecting – though ‘more’ comes to mind. Let’s start with what I liked about this book. I liked the idea that the monster is ‘made’ a monster by the treatment he receives from humanity. He is ugly and humanity does like to punish the ugly - this is a universal truth about us that in itself is also fairly ugly.

The other thing I liked was that standard ploy of gothic novels – the multiple Chinese whisper narration. In this the story is all written in More...

19 comments like (38 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2009

Shannon rated it:

Spoilers!
Frankenstein is the first book written by Mary Shelley (daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, friend of Lord Byron), and her most famous. First published in 1818, she later revised it for its second printing in 1823, adding a preface that cleared up conjecture as to what she was writing about, changing the relationship of Elizabeth to the family (in the original, she is Victor Frankenstein's cousin, in the second she has no blood relatio More...

7 comments like (25 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2011

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" rated it:

Mary W. Shelley explored themes that still resonate today in her proto-science fiction work, Frankenstein. Themes of the relentless drive and search for ultimate (even forbidden) knowledge; intellectual arrogance; the desire to create something enduring; the need for love and recognition; and a study in how bitterness, hatred and rage can destroy a person. What separates men from God? What separates man from monster? Can a so-called monster have the heart (the humanity) and the accompanying More...

24 comments like (32 people liked it)

Nov 04, 2011

Shovelmonkey1 rated it:

The Modern Prometheus. Prometheus stole fire from the Gods. Well presumably they weren't using it that much anyway and if you can generate lightening bolts on a whim surely it's greedy to hog it?

Victor Frankenstein acquired/borrowed/stole the power to give life after substantial meddling... this book is a prime example of what happens when your parents are overly encouraging and want you to have a well rounded education and an enquiring mind. Enquiring minds are trouble!

More...

15 comments like (18 people liked it)

Nov 05, 2011

Charity rated it:

First of all, Frankenstein is the doctor, not the monster.

Second, with all due respect to Boris Karloff and Kenneth Branagh, no film version of Mary Shelley's novel has ever gotten the themes or the characters straight, so the book is by FAR superior to the adaptations.

This is a novel that wonders how far science can go before it offends against the laws of god and nature and debates the responsibility of a creator for his creation. Packed with creepy scenes and challeng More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2010

Jason rated it:

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label

Essay #36: Frankenstein (1818), by Mary Shelley

The story in a nutshell:
To truly understand why Mary Shelley's 181 More...

2 comments like (19 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2007

Christina rated it:

first i'd like to say this book should (if it hasn't already) be recorded as an audio book with Jon Lovitz as the narrator using his Saturday Nite Live "thespian" voice. i think i read the entire book with that voice in my head which made me laugh out loud when i read "Begone, vile insect!" ha ha! i am still laughing!

second, i wish i had a dollar for every time the word "wretch" was used.

i'm sort of on the fence with this book. while the sto More...

5 comments like (17 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2011

Yvette rated it:

I read this book in high school and really enjoyed it. This book was deeper than a mad scientist trying to recreate life. This book is about emotions and consequences. Amazingly enough I was touched by this monster. I was so affected by his need for companionship and love. I remember being so touched by his loneliness that I wept. I was angered that Frankenstein shuns his creation. Reminded me of the many people who are shunned by others just because they are different. We all need love More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2008

Brandon rated it:

Mary Shelly wrote this book when she was only 18 years old. She was under the heavy influence of her politically radical, and powerful parents. And she was very much aware of the political movements that had shattered Europe in the late 1700's and early 1800's. The noble efforts of the French Revolution had recently ended with the reign of Terror and left Europe in a conservative backlash that included a crack down on civil liberties. Also keep in mind that the book's full title is "Fran More...

1 comment like (21 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2011

Sparrow rated it:

I had this professor in college who assigned Frankenstein, so I thought I'd read it for the third time because maybe that time Frankenstein's whining wouldn't kill me. The professor was kind of an abomination in a lot of ways, but not the worst professor ever. Anyway, I'll never forget going to class for the lecture on the book. The professor was lecturing in this caught-you-with-your-hand-in-the-cookie-jar voice and said, "Frankenstein's monster was a vewy, vewy baaaaad monster!" More...

16 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Conrad rated it:

Shelly's book is easily one of my top five or ten of all time, and it's almost unbearably innovative and as rich and ambiguous in its symbolism as anything Melville or James ever wrote.

It's anti-Romantic, presenting Paracelsus and mysticism as destructive forces, but it's also skeptical of the Enlightenment values of Shelly's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft; it's not overfond of what society does to people but terrified that anyone should live without human company; it's both heartbreak More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2010

BunWat rated it:

Yeah I know, its dated, the language is excessive and sometimes so elevated as to be faintly absurd, the frame is probably not necessary, and the women are mostly useless. And yet, somehow it still captures my imagination.

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Knowledge Lost rated it:

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 More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2008

Colin rated it:

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a fantastic character-driven piece with one of the finest endings in literature.

Despite being considered one of the first fully realized science fiction novels, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein really got the shaft when it came to adaptations. It’s the monster slain by pop culture perception. (Dracula, on the other hand, did quite well outside of the book.) Frankenstein is not a big, groaning zombie with a hump in his back, bolts in his green neck and a jagged More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2008

Blaise rated it:

Frankenstein is a book that really shocked me because I did not expect it to have such depth and meaning. The premises is absolutely preposterous. But the story is told so eloquently and with such conviction that I was quickly able to get past that. Additionally, the characters are people you come to care deeply about, which makes the horrific events that dominate the second half of the novel very difficult to cope with, causing serious reflection.

There are really three central is More...

4 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Henry rated it:

Victor Frankenstein, reveals his secrets on board a ship exploring the Arctic Ocean(The old dream of a northwest passage).Being rescued from an ice flow.He fears that no one will believe his story of creating a "monster", that kills.In the late 1700's who would? At first the leader of the crew Robert Walton, thinks Frankenstein is insane.After all, Victor was found with a dog sled in the middle of the sea!What was he doing there?Born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland to a good family, More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2009

Kyle rated it:

Most of the people just do not get Frankenstein. It is more along the lines of an epic Romantic poem in a novel's form. The fact that the monster was abandoned by his creator is a direct symbol of the abandonment of men; be it some form of intelligent designer or the process of our own evolution. Either way, man has been abandoned in some fashion by some device. This is where I believe the work coincides with the Romantic period. The monster’s request of Frankenstein to create him a mate is a Ro More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2010

Alex rated it:

This and Anna Karenina are as close as I know to perfect. The only thing that holds Frankenstein back is the writing style; at times you're reminded that Shelley was only 18 when she wrote it. The plot and pacing are perfect, and the scenes are terrific - particularly the exquisite first bit of the monster's story - but there are sometimes some minor rough patches in the sentences.

It's a warning, of course, about creating things we don't understand. Everyone knows that. What I'm More...

8 comments like (12 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Beatrice rated it:

To be completely honest, I never thought I’d like this book. I inwardly groaned I was handed a copy of the book. (But then I guess anything would be better than Great Expectations.) It is an unspoken rule amongst students that you must not ever enjoy any kind of required reading for school; however, I found myself engrossed in Victor Frankenstein’s story and I desperately wanted to read ahead even though I knew my teacher would not have probably approved of that.

I have always been of More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2011

Debra rated it:

Stephen King recommended book. In Chapter 3 of Berkley's 1983 paperback edition of Danse Macabre, King said: "The three novels I want to discuss in this chapter seem to have actually achieved that immortality, and I believe it's impossible to discuss horror in the years 1950-1980 with any real fullness of understanding unless we begin with these three books."

Those three books are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, and Frankenstein.

I'm glad, after all these year More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Elliot rated it:

As obvious as it seems now that I write it down, I had a remarkable epiphany when my class was discussing this novel: We do a very bad job of delineating monsters from humans. What is monstruous? There is no monstruous deed that a human cannot perform. We define what is evil by what we ourselves are capable of doing, if only we were abit more morally lost or confused, if only we were captured by rage. It is a simple statement, but the reason why we don't consider hurricanes or earthquakes " More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 14, 2010

Shellie (Layers of Thought) rated it:

Synopsis: (may contain spoilers for some)
This story is a well know horror classic and is an epistolary novel. It is written as a series of letter from an educated English explorer to his sister as he embarks on a journey through the inhospitable icy Northern regions of the world. As he is traveling with his ship and crew, he finds a man half frozen to death traveling on the ice. The captain brings the frozen Doctor Frankenstein onto his ship and nurses him back to consciousness More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2011

Nicola rated it:

Frankenstein turned out to be way better than I anticipated. I went into it figuring I might like it and at the very worst at least I could say I've read it. I loved it though, from start to finish!

I think Mary Shelley's writing is magnificent and she really succeeded in drawing me into the world of Victor and the monster. I loved that it was stories within stories within stories yet it was still incredibly easy to follow who was talking when. I really enjoyed every single tale we w More...

6 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2008

Madeline rated it:

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6 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2008

Jon rated it:

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

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