Frankenstein: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism

by Johanna M. Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Revised to reflect critical trends of the past 15 years, the third iteration of this widely adopted critical edition presents the 1831 text of Mary Shelley’s English Romantic novel along with critical essays that introduce students to Frankenstein from contemporary psychoanalytic, Marxist, feminist, gender/queer, postcolonial, and cultural studies perspectives. The text and essays are complemented by contextual documents, introductions (with bibliographies), and a glossary of critical and theoretical terms.In the third edition, three of the six essays are new, representing recent gender/queer, postcolonial, and cultural theories. The contextual documents have been significantly revised to include many images of Frankenstein from contemporary popular culture.

608 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 20, 2015

Reviews

[Stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better late than never

[🥳 · Rating 3 out of 5]

the themes of this book were really interesting to me, and the parallels at the end with victor to how the creature felt at the beginning? amazing.
the true monster in this story is victor. i remain by that statement. he just desired love and needed his creator to be there, and then turned to the delaceys, and then to build another creature, and then just wanted to make victor miserable which i think he kind of deserved. the last few chapters of this book was what brought it together.
additionally, knowing how crazy mary shelley’s life is adds to the effect the book has. overall, it was hard to get through this book, but i thought the messages and themes it contained to be incredibly interesting and continued to keep me engaged and feel pity for the creature throughout the book

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this book (and this specific edition) for class. Decent book. Not the best thing in the entire world, but I think I enjoyed it more this second time around reading it, partly because I had more time to read it and partly because I already had knowledge of the story. But rereading this made me realize all the stuff I forgot about from the last time we read it. I don't hate this book and I don't love it, but I can appreciate the history surrounding it, its author, and the conversations it prompts.

[Brook T. Amos · Rating 5 out of 5]

finished the story portion. still have the criticisms to read. remarkable book. had no idea of its eloquence and meritable qualities as a classic. thought it would be more bizarre and poltergeist-like.

[Bladen Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this specific version in Dr. Sowerbrower’s class. I thought it was genuinely a good book. Sometimes it was annoying to read (partly because it was assigned) but other than that the story was amazing. Reading the literary criticisms were lame. Only read Postcolonial and Psychoanalytic tho.

[Emma Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great exploration of different critical perspectives of Frankenstein, and fantastic resource for other critical works in this area.

[Siren D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great classic. Would be even better if Shelly was not a raging Christian supremacist/ white feminist.

[Charley Melton · Rating 5 out of 5]

gonna be in my mary shelley, frankenstein phase until AT LEAST november. victor frankenstein makes me want to abandon my dream to be an author and just raise hell as a mad scientist. the embodiment of gender envy.

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much is going on in this novel. If you didn't know, Mary Shelley started writing Frankenstein at the urging of her husband and because of a ghost writing competition that was started by Lord Byron while they were on vacation. She had a nightmare, and thus the narrative was born. You can apply really any critical theory to the novel. I liked the movie better.

[Madi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book and this edition specifically for a college class and I think that’s the only reason why I had a hard time reading it. I might enjoy a different addition better.

[Corinna Bevier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was nothing like the Boris Karloff movie.