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Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley,

Charlotte Gordon (Introduction)

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What Members Thought

May 13, 2010 Book Concierge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, england, science-fiction, 19th-century, audio, movie, concierge, library, literature, horror

A classic "ghost" story. Victor Frankenstein pursues science to its logical extreme to create life, and he is immediately horrified at his own success. The monster, however, is intelligent and resourceful and comes to understand his own loneliness and therefore seeks revenge on his creator. There are many unexplained occurences (How'd the monster find the ship? or get Henry Clerval's body onto the very shore that Frankenstein would wind up on?) especially for today's more savvy reader, but it's ...more

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Oct 18, 2010 Tien rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller, classic, horror

I remember reading this over a decade ago, in the middle of the night when everybody else in the house was asleep and thunderstorm outside. It was a fantastic atmosphere for reading this material.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the same sort of atmosphere this time around even though it was Haloween or maybe I've just grown up that it's just not scary anymore...

The format of the book is that of a series of letters written by Walton to his dear sister, Margaret. Walton is an explorer in nature & amb ...more

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Aug 15, 2013 Desertisland added it · review of another edition

Maybe I can find essays analyzing this novel. (Might have been chosen for UNBEARABLE BOOK CLUB because it describes a sort of parent/child relationship reflected in that book; also "child development" or development of intellect--tho I wondered if someone who had been consciously "taught" by other people, would assume same standards of beauty--and ugliness. (Perhaps author believed that nature trains the eye, as well as heart and spirit. We may be more aware now of how different cultures and tim ...more

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May 27, 2011 Erin WV rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, on-my-shelves, digital-read, 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Frankenstein is not as awesome a read as its thematic soulmate Dracula, because Dracula has more action. Victor (AKA Dr. Frankenstein) is an incredibly passive character to hang this novel on. Early on, he narrates almost feverishly about the years that he spends studying, researching, experimenting to discover how to recreate the spark of life. Then he does, and his creature lives. He’s terrified of the creature, so he runs away—literally—and when he returns to his house, the creature has disap Frankenstein is not as awesome a read as its thematic soulmate Dracula, because Dracula has more action. Victor (AKA Dr. Frankenstein) is an incredibly passive character to hang this novel on. Early on, he narrates almost feverishly about the years that he spends studying, researching, experimenting to discover how to recreate the spark of life. Then he does, and his creature lives. He’s terrified of the creature, so he runs away—literally—and when he returns to his house, the creature has disappeared. And then a year passes while he tries to forget what he did. Later, after he’s seen the creature again, and the creature has demanded that Victor build him a female companion, Victor agrees. He spends a few months arranging a trip to England to work with some scientists there. He travels there slowly—in a downright leisurely manner–with a friend. Then they spend a few months traveling the English countryside.

From Derby, still journeying northwards, we passed two months in Cumberland and Westmorland. I could now almost fancy myself among the Swiss mountains.

Really, Victor, is that so? GET TO WORK. They’re here and there and Victor keeps describing scenery—mountains and rivers and fields. Look at the men of Dracula comparatively—Seward, Harker, Van Helsing, the other guys—they’re all working, all the time. They’re staying up all night doing blood transfusions on Lucy, then they’re staking out the cemetery, then they’re planning to infiltrate the Count’s house, and they’re jumping on and off trains. They’re dynamos. I’m not saying that Dracula is an inherently better book for that, or those men inherently better characters. Victor’s ambivalence and fretting over what he’s done is complex and interesting. It just makes the book a bit less suspenseful than Stoker’s. Supposedly Mary Shelley originally composed the story to be told around a roaring fire. Maybe she put in all the aimless wandering later.

Philosophically, it’s incredibly interesting—tons of circuitous little routes to follow. The most obvious is the question of the man of science playing God. In high school, which was the first time I read Frankenstein, I wrote a paper about how the debate about technology and ethics was still relevant to the modern world, using the cloning controversy as my example. (Remember Dolly, the first cloned sheep? She was new then.)

This time, I was fascinated by the part where the monster demanded that Frankenstein make him a mate. He basically lays blackmail at Victor's feet—he says, I am unloved so I am unhappy. As long as I’m unhappy, everybody DIES. Make me a girl and you’ll never hear from us again. If you don’t, everybody DIES. I started thinking about the idea of the outcast, the pariah, and what their retaliatory rights actually are. If society disenfranchises a person (or a race, or an ethnic group, or a gender or a class, etc.) does that person/race/group have the right to turn to violence? Or should they turn the other cheek? You could trace a lot of different philosophical perspectives all congregating in this one scene.

I don’t know why Victor doesn’t just kill the monster, though. He has many opportunities; presumably one good shot to the head would do it. Then he DOES decide to kill the monster. But he waits until morning, and then he walks on the beach to think about it, and then he takes a nap. This is maybe the most meandery book I’ve ever read. Still, the hype is true. It’s a masterpiece of the English language. ...more

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Apr 30, 2020 Hannah Peterson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aty-2019-2020

What an exceptional book! I've had this experience with a couple of classics (most notably my beloved, The Picture of Dorian Gray) where I put off reading them for awhile because I thought that I knew the story too well from cultural osmosis to get much pleasure out of reading it. In many of these cases, I was extraordinarily pleased to discover that the worth of the book was not simply in its captivating and frequently referenced plot, but in the emotional depth of the characters and the beauty ...more

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Jan 21, 2016 Kristal rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, classic, horror, 2011-reads, gothic-horror, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you

I love horror stories both in books and on film. So I was familiar with the tale of Frankenstein. However, I am sad to say that it has taken me almost 40 years to sit down and read this classic tale. While I will admit that it took me an exceptionally longer amount of time to read it than normal (I found myself yawning a lot and nodding off at some points), it is so much more detailed and emotional than I would have imagined. And it was really quite hard to believe the depth and emotion that She ...more

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Aug 31, 2010 Heather Reads Books rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, mfa-reading-list

Not as good as I remember. Although still pretty fantastically cool. I love the idea, but I can really tell that this was written by a 20-year-old. Something about the structure. Just the way everything was presented -- especially when it goes into a lengthy well-spoken narration from the monster's point of view. I thought he was quite cultured for being alive a few months and learning everything about humanity from watching a few people live their lives. I don't know.

Still gets four stars for t ...more

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Jul 10, 2010 Kristel rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-challenge, npr-100-sf-fantasy-books, gothic

Story of a monster. Shelley create this story during an evening spent with friends. The literary device would be "projecting the perils of man seeking to play God." (Foster). The real monster is the creator in this story. This book projects the period of the nineteenth century of the dual nature of man, that we are both good and evil. ...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Rachel Jones rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I would have rated this much higher if the book had focused mainly on the monster's story.....but 100+ pages of Frankenstein moaning about how miserable he felt does not a classic make. ...more

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