Book Review: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

When Robert Walton's ship becomes stuck in the Arctic ice, he and his crew spy a dark-clad figure, hunched on a sled and flying away from them over the ice. A short time later, they encounter another such sleigh, only this time, the lone driver is brought aboard the ship, exhausted and close on the heels of death. The crew tends to the mysterious man, and once he's able, he begins to tell Robert of the strange circumstances of his history and what brought him to be trapped on the ice.

The strange man begins with his origins as a young Victor Frankenstein, finding himself entranced by a book by Cornelius Agrippa discoursing his early views and ideas concerning science and natural philosophy -- especially those concerning the elixir of life. He carries this fascination with him to university in Ingolstadt where his studies finally allow him to reach his goal: creating life.

Instead of finding wonder in his new creation, he only sees the hideous face, the overly tall stature, and at once abandons the creature, hoping to leave it and all things concerning it behind. The months pass, and when Frankenstein readies himself to return home to Geneva, he learns of the murder of his younger brother. He intuitively knows who did it. From that moment on, he determines to find some way to rid himself and the world of his creation, even if it takes him to the ends of the Earth.

Frankenstein is one of those literary classics that you should have read in high school, but never got around to it. And as an avid reader of horror, I still don't know why I waited all this time to finally read it.

The one thing that struck me about the book is how vastly different it is from James Whale's 1931 film interpretation. In the movie, the creature's tall and green, with bolts protruding from his neck, eyes, half shut, can barely utter anything beyond a grunt or moan. In Mary Shelley's novel, the creature is also tall, but suffers emotionally from how others treat him. He has the ability to learn and teaches himself to read and to speak. He also becomes a very consummate student of humanity and turns what he learns into revenge against his maker.

Frankenstein is a novel about a monster, but who exactly is this monster? Is it Frankenstein's creation who is shunned because of his disfigured face and giant stature, who begins to hate only because that is what he has been shown? Or is it Frankenstein himself, who created and abandoned the creature because he found it monstrous? Or is it society itself, and how "civilization" fears that which it doesn't understand?

Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
Pocket Books
ISBN: 0-7434-8758-3
mass market paperback, 324 pgs.


borrowed from the Long Beach Public Library

Image from Cover Browser.