Frankenstein in Classics Without All the Class

Nov 27, 2013 Manda rated it liked it

Shelves: male-pov, distracting-prose, eurasian-culture-influence, holy-crap-what-moment, great-idea-ok-execution, sympathy-for-the-devil, beauty-ambiguity-allegory, philosopher-creator-storyteller, rom-lite

In all honesty, I read this because I LOVED The Lost Girl, and that was inspired by this book. I also wanted to catch influences in This Dark Endeavor before tackling that book.

I liked the ideas and story behind this book more than the actual telling, and I wasn't too much of a fan of the prose. Unfortunately, because of the title of the second book above, I was slightly sensitive to the use of the word "endeavor" in Frankenstein, and the word was used... a lot. I guess it was just a very commo ...more

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Aug 07, 2010 Carol rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, favorites, brit-lit, mary-shelley

First a little history on what prompted this writing -- In 1815, Mount Tambora (Indonesia) was the deadliest and largest volcanic eruption in history. (The death toll was 71,000 people). The eruption caused global climate anomalies such as in 1816-the "Year Without a Summer" because of the effect on the weather. Agricultural crops failed and livestock died, resulting in the worst famine of the 19th century. Byron, along with friends, spent the summer of 1816 in Switzerland where the darkness pro First a little history on what prompted this writing -- In 1815, Mount Tambora (Indonesia) was the deadliest and largest volcanic eruption in history. (The death toll was 71,000 people). The eruption caused global climate anomalies such as in 1816-the "Year Without a Summer" because of the effect on the weather. Agricultural crops failed and livestock died, resulting in the worst famine of the 19th century. Byron, along with friends, spent the summer of 1816 in Switzerland where the darkness prompted him to challenge his friends to write their own macabre stories, In Switzerland, the damp and dark summer stimulated Gothic imaginings. Vacationing near Lake Geneva, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his soon-to-be wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, and some friends sat out a June storm reading a collection of German ghost stories. From these stories came Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” John Polidori’s “The Vampyre,” as well as Byron’s “Darkness.”

STORY: Young Victor Frankenstein's ambition is to achieve fame and distinction in the field of natural philosophy which consumes his life and he creates a human being of a dead parts. He tells no one of this work, years pass and finally, his work is completed. Victor beholds the monstrous, grotesque form of his creation & he is horror-stricken. He flees his laboratory and when he returns, the creature has disappeared. Later Victor gets a letter stating that his younger brother has been murdered which he fears (correctly) was by his creation. The maidservant Justine is accused, tried and put to death for a murder she did not commit. Victor is devastated.

His creation finds shelter in an abandoned hovel. His refuge adjoined the cottage of an exiled French family: by observing them, the monster acquires language, as well as an extensive knowledge of the ways of humanity. He was greatly aided in this by the reading 3 books recovered from a satchel in the snow: Milton's Paradise Lost, Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, and a volume of Plutarch's Lives. The monster speaks with great eloquence and cultivation as a result of his limited but admirable education. He tries to make friends with the family, but it rejected to his hideous appearance. He curses his creator. He asks Victor to create a female mate for him, so that he may no longer be so utterly alone. If Victor complies with this rather reasonable request, he promises to leave human society forever. Though he has a brief crisis of conscience, Victor agrees to the task in order to save his remaining loved ones.

Victor goes to England with his dear friend, Clerval to learn new scientific techniques that will aid him in his promise to the Monster. Victor is nearly halfway through the work of creation when he is seized by fear. Apprehensive that the creature and his mistress will spawn yet more monsters, and thus destroy humanity, he tears the new woman to bits before the monster's very eyes. The creature emits a tortured scream. He leaves Victor with a single, most ominous promise: "I shall be with you on your wedding night."

Victor takes a rowboat out into the center of a lake, and throws the new woman's tattered remains overboard. He falls asleep, and drifts for an entire day upon the open water and washes ashore, where he is immediately seized and charged with murder. Victor is taken custody and shown the body of his dear friend Henry, murdered at the creature's hands. This brings on a fever of delirium that lasts for months. His father comes to escort him home, and Victor is cleared of all charges. At home in Geneva, the family begins planning the marriage of Elizabeth and Victor. On their wedding night, Elizabeth is strangled to death in the conjugal bed. Upon hearing the news, Victor's father takes to his bed, where he promptly dies of grief.

Having lost everyone he has ever loved, Victor determines to spend the rest of his life pursuing the creature. This is precisely what the creature himself wants: now, Frankenstein will be as wretched as he is. For some time, the creator pursues his creation; he had chased him as far as the Arctic Circle when he was rescued by Robert Walton (English adventurer: expedition to the North Pole.) Victor finally can no longer struggle against his illness, and dies peacefully in his sleep. At the moment of his death, the creature appears: he mourns all that he has done, but maintains that he could not have done otherwise, given the magnitude of his suffering: he is "the miserable and the abandoned, an abortion, to be spurned, and kicked, and trampled on." He then flees, vowing that he will build for himself a funeral pyre and throw his despised form upon the flames.

REVIEW: The subtitle of Shelley's novel puts Victor Frankenstein in the role of Prometheus. Victor Frankenstein creates a man and gives him life, and like Prometheus, he ultimately endures great torment (as he watches friends and loved ones murdered by the Creature). Unlike Prometheus, Frankenstein has no affection for his creation, but reviles and abandons it. This dereliction of paternal/Godly duty results in a Pandora's box of evils being let loose with disastrous results for all within Frankenstein's world. In a sense, he is both Prometheus and Epimetheus. Another Greek myth reference is where the Creature laments the loss of his fire, which he had accidentally found and did not know how to produce for himself.

Victor Frankenstein is also cast as God the Creator, which places the Creature in the role of Adam - "Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay. To mould me man? Did I solicit thee; From darkness to promote me?" These lines are spoken by Adam, in his anguish, to God, but could just as easily be spoken by the Creature, who is also tormented, to Victor Frankenstein. The Creature, however, is not tormented because of any transgression of his own. He is a fallen, outcast Adam as a result of Victor's transgression and the callousness of humankind. Tragedy does not befall the main characters because Frankenstein tries to "play God" and, therefore, earns His wrath and punishment. The tragedy results from his failure to properly care for his creation by leaving it to the mercy of a human race that fears what it does not understand and judges people by superficial appearances. This leads to rejection and profound isolation for the Creature and turns his basically noble nature into something vengeful. In his dark and vengeful scenes, the Creature is re-cast in the role of Milton's Satan, who rails against the God who rejected him and plots to avenge himself upon that God.

Victor moves through the roles of Prometheus, God and Adam, and his Creature shifts from Adam to Satan and, even God. These shifts are allusions to ancient Greek mythology, as well as to the various parts of Paradise Lost, about the myth of man's creation and fall. ...more

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Oct 28, 2010 Mike Davis rated it liked it

Shelves: classics

This was, for me, a mandatory classic. The classic movie with Boris Karloff deviated significantly from the storyline. I found it a bit lengthy at times.

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