Frankenstein in Overdue Podcast

Sep 04, 2015 Hannah rated it liked it · review of another edition

What? What! What? My experience with Frankenstein has, of course, been the many movie versions that are out there. Now, I realize that books and movies differ, but I didn't realize to what extent. SPOILER ALERT: There is no Igor! There is no scary mass of peasants storming the castle while Frankenstein is up on the roof waiting for a lightning storm.

In fact, when Frankenstein brought his creation to life, I actually had to read the section two times because it happened so fast that I had to make ...more

Like · see review

May 30, 2013 Tiffani rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013, classics, lit-explorer-2013, horror

I have always equated horror with violence and bloodshed simply for the sake of it. Maybe that is not a completely fair characterization of horror, I don't know. In any case, with the goal of completing the Literary Exploration Challenge I was ready and willing to give horror a try. Being a classic and as I understand it, one of the first of its kind, I chose Frankenstein as my introduction to the genre. I ended up not enjoying the story all that much, but not for the reason I expected.

When I th I have always equated horror with violence and bloodshed simply for the sake of it. Maybe that is not a completely fair characterization of horror, I don't know. In any case, with the goal of completing the Literary Exploration Challenge I was ready and willing to give horror a try. Being a classic and as I understand it, one of the first of its kind, I chose Frankenstein as my introduction to the genre. I ended up not enjoying the story all that much, but not for the reason I expected.

When I think of horror stories I imagine something grisly, bloody, and well horrible. Not horrible as in bad writing, but horrible as in more terrifying that you really want to imagine. What I don't associate with horror is boredom, and that is what best characterizes my experience reading Frankenstein. The story begins with a series of letters. The crazy part is that neither the author nor the intended reader of the letters is Frankenstein, the monster, or any other character directly related to the action. No, the author of the letters is a sea captain writing to his sister about his voyage. It is not until the fourth letter that the letter writer mentions discovering Victor Frankenstein on an ice covered island. When Frankenstein finally entered the story, I thought, now we're getting to the good part. Instead, I spent the next several dozen pages reading about Frankenstein's childhood, all the while wondering when the monster was going to show up.

I get why this is a classic. I understand why graduate students have written pages and pages of dissertations about Frankenstein and why it might be taught in school. The parallels of the biblical story of the creation of Adam (and Eve), the pursuit of knowledge no matter the cost, the power of nature, rejection and acceptance - all these themes (and probably more) are all there. Still, I was so bored.

I think I would have enjoyed this more if it were shorter. There is so much that could be cut out (the correspondence in the beginning, for example). The parts that were most interesting were when the monster was around - studying the poor family, trying to introduce himself to them, begging Frankenstein to make him a mate. The rest was background that just didn't need to be there. It would have also helped if it were written more in the present and less in the past tense. That the sea captain, and later Frankenstein, is telling us about something that happened in the past made the action seem even more muted and more than anything the volume needed to be turned up. ...more

Like · see review

Oct 23, 2012 R rated it liked it

Shelves: classic-literature, science-fiction

Let it be known that the monster's name is not Frankenstein, but rather it is the name of the scientist and man who created the monster.

That's just something I had to get out of the way and admittedly I was part of the population who initially thought the reverse. And while this novel is a classic of the sci-fi/horror genre, I can finally say that I've read it. I didn't love it, but it is easy to see how such a novel created a cult following because really, Mary Shelley making this story up on a ...more

Like · see review