[BINGO!] I’ve been mulling over this review of Frankenstein for a couple of weeks now and I have so many thoughts and feelings! I’ll first admit that I had never read Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus before this year, and truly believed that the gothic horror story was just the same as James Whale’s Frankenstein movie. And it is not. At all. The same. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley wrote her epic tale about the hopelessness of being The Other, of the misery of the life unwanted, and uncared for. The monster is a […]
Splash down with Ninteenth Century Evil Science
The basic storyline is thus: a group of daughters/creations of infamous literary scientists band together for self-protection and sisterhood, have adventures, and solve crimes. We have Mary Jekyll, the leader, Diana Hyde the wild and bratty little sister, Beatrice Rappaccini the beauty, Catherine Moreau the fierce one, and Justine Frankenstein the strong one. They are assisted by Mrs. Poole the housekeeper, Alice the maid, and Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as themselves. Their main target of investigation is Société des Alchemistes, a shadowy organization to […]
Truth Time: Victor Frankenstein is a Dick
Hollywood can’t get Frankenstein right. We all grew up thinking that the Frankenstein monster was this green, groaning thing was stupid and aimlessly looking for people to murder. The reason why Hollywood can’t get it right is because while people do die in the book, it’s not a traditional horror novel. Instead, it’s a quiet study of what makes us human and what happens when our basic needs aren’t met. It’s a gentle argument that we are shaped into the people we are rather than born […]
This is what happens when you get overly ambitious about your science projects
I refuse to spoilertag anything in this review, because people, this book is nearly 200 years old. You’ve had ample time to read this book, if anything in my review spoils it for you, on your own head be it. Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister Margaret, recounting his journey to the North Pole in a quest for scientific fame. He writes of the strange and charismatic man they rescue in the wilderness, a Victor Frankenstein. Through Walton’s letters, we also get Frankenstein’s […]
A Classic – Happy Halloween!
In honor of All Hallow’s Eve, I read a classic monster story. The fact that Frankenstein is a household name 200 years later is a testament to Shelley’s work–which she began writing at only 19 years old! The story is told in a series of letters that Walton, a captain of a ship trying to find a Northeast passage, writes to his sister in England. He comes across a bedraggled man with a dogsled in the middle of the ice, takes him on the ship, […]
Man is a Monster
Literary classics earn their designation by presenting themes that resonate throughout the ages. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is just such a literary classic. She wrote this short but brilliant tale when she was about 20, while she, her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron were on holiday in Switzerland. As the poor weather prevented their outdoor adventures, the three entertained themselves with stories of the “supernatural.” Shelley’s Frankenstein has become a world renowned classic and a staple of Halloween partiers everywhere. And yet, Shelley’s scary […]