Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1472524 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 352 pages

Customer Reviews

First Among Monsters
Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is at once firmly in the tradition of the Gothic genre that was so popular in the eighteenth century, and one of the first of the science fiction genre that was to become so important in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It remains one of the defining works of both genres. The mad scientist, tampering with Nature with disastrous results, has become a stock character of SciFi/horror. As for the Monster itself, only Dracula rivals him as a horror icon. So the novel is important for its place in literary history, but does it still stand up on its own merits as an individual work?

The first thing to say is that it is not the story you know from the Hollywood versions. The scientist is called Frankenstein and he created a man; the similarity ends there. All the details are different. The novel is a strange, obsessive tale, complex in structure and rich in psychological symbolism. The real, underlying themes are incest, sibling rivalry and the self-destructive power of guilt. I will refrain from further comment on the story itself, because you are better coming to it fresh and letting it unfold.

The author's style is always competent, often elegent, but never sublime. She is not the poet of the family. We are offered lengthy word-portraits of Alpine landscapes that are clearly intended to transport the reader but in fact leave you prosaicly in place.

Not in the first rank of literature therefore, but so strikingly imaginative and replete with such memorable imagery that it is still worth reading.

Think you know Frankenstein? Probably not.
I know many other reviews have probably pointed this out, but Frankenstein is usually the subject of a common misconception, in that Frankenstein is not the creature's name, it is his creators surname. The creature does not in fact have a name (I call him creature for lack of a better word), and throughout the novel is de-humanised and debased as he is refered to as a monster. He is the unknown and the misunderstood and is therefore shunned from society and everything that is considered normal.
This is the classic novel of one man, and his quest for knowledge. This quest leads to him bestowing life upon an inanimate being; something which he deeply regrets as soon as he has accomplished it. It is the product of Victor Frankenstein's own creation that eats away at him and ultimately destroys him.
The novel reads as a warning against the accomplishments of scientific experimentation, which, in Shelley's day, would have been deeply shocking to the reader. Nowadays, it is much more difficult to shock, but this novel remains a classic. It is unfortunate that the 'legend' of Frankenstein has been so altered by many different adaptations over the years, as the original story is one that forces the reader to consider the moral aspect and the humanity of the 'monster.' It is not just another horror story.

Simply superb! A must, must, must read!
This novel is often simply stereotyped as a gothic horror story. It is however, so much more!It is more a tradgedy than a horror, the main characters Frankenstein and his creation demonstrate the effects of acting upon blind obsession without considering the consequences. This epic tale evokes such emotion that it is almost impossible to put down. Completely disregard every Frankenstein film you have ever seen and read this book!No film could ever do the book the justice it deserves!