Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
1818
Around 260 pages
As you already know, I do these posts chronologically and we have recently come across a streak of books that I have read already, which is why you are being hit with around six posts at once. Normality will be restored soon.
I only read horror books in October, so I maybe read this book around two years ago. It is still fresh in my mind, however, mostly because it was so different than what I expected. I was, of course, expected some monster horror novel. I was very wrong indeed.
This is the story of Dr. Frankenstein, who figures out how to create life without his johnson. So the doctor is actually Frankenstein and the monster is the monster of Frankenstein, not Frankenstein. Common misconception. Anyway, the monster is not a grunting zombie like he is portrayed in the movies, but actually quite intelligent. This actually makes the story quite sad, because he knows he is very self aware.
This is a short one; you can probably read it in one sitting. I was a little disappointed in it because I was expecting a horror story and it was really more of a novel on the nature of men and the danger of playing god. Still, it is a very thoughtful book, one that has been trivialized by Universal studios.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
Shelley wrote it for a competition between her friends and family.
Admired by Sir Walter Scott.
MONSTER ATTACK:
4 comments:
There was a fascinating documentary on BBC the other night about the time spent at the villa Diodati that summer .. nd the 'writing competition.
I had often wondered about the 'other' stories.. Well now I know.
Shelley's was lost - no one seems to know if it was any good or not. Byron's was tacked onto the end of some other work and generally forgotten about. Polidori's however deserves more credit. Called 'The vampyre' it was the first 'modern' vampire story.. Before vampires had bee brutal and nasty creatures.. polidori was the first to make the vampire what we most associate him as today.. the precursor of Dracula .. a sophisticated, educated, smooth and sexy British aristocrate.
I'd also failed to click together that 1816 was the famous 'Year without a summer', when, due to a huge volcanic explosion in Indonesia, the Northern hemisphere went into a sort of nuclear winter and their summer was almost perpetual rain and thunder storms.. all very conducive to the gothic atmosphere. (Plus all the sexual tension rife in the villa)
That is all super interesting. I laughed at the sexual tension thing but it is true! Damn, I wish reality shows were around back then.
I half-liked this. It was OK and although a shame not to reach for the parts that gothic horror Dracula touched, it was interesting to discover how different it was from its own reputation.
My two petty complaints which I focused on too much were...
- It buried itself inside too many simultaneous framing devices. At one point we had what the family in the forest were doing, as described by the monster living in the wood shed, as described by Dr. Frankenstein, as written in the letters home from the sea captain. Inception, eat your heart out.
- Every character spent half their time bemoaning how terrible and wretched their lives and their souls were, like tortured romantic poets. Even the monster wasn't exempt!
I think I am with Dessie on those complaints. As a narrative it just did not flow that well.
On the other hand, there are a lot of novel thoughts and ideas here and the moral implications are food for a lot of thought.
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