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 Frankenstein August 18, 2008
Mary Shelly says it like no one else. I thought Tolstoy had the most profound writing talent before reading this book.
Usually I read to kill time but this book had me make the time. In my 52 years, this has been the book that I couldn't wait to get back to. I'm deeply impressed and so happy that I chose this timeless classic.
4-1/2 stars for a classic the movies messed up August 4, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Did the people who made the Frankenstein movie even read this book? All of the things that I associated with Frankenstein are creations of the movie alone. No Igor, no lightning striking the body, no grave-robbing (not directly referred to anyway), no mountain laboratory, no villagers attacking the castle to burn it to the ground. Just a young college student seized with a fever to see what he is capable of creating. What he creates is a monster so terrible to look upon, that he is disgusted and horrified and flees from it. The creature is not yet a monster and only wants to be loved and cared for by its creator. But as it is attacked and maligned purely on the basis of its horrific appearance, it becomes a monster and strikes out to destroy everything its creator loves. It's a real tragedy told almost entirely as a narrative without action. It was a tough read in spots, but well worth it. I'm a big classic horror movie fan, but after reading this and Dracula, I'm a bit appalled at how far they strayed from the original.
Frakenstein July 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An incredible book that I only wish I had read earlier in my life. Once I started the book I had difficulty putting it back down except to do the things that I was obliged to do. I loved the book completely, but I am still after finishing it unsure what my thoughts and feelings are towards Victor Frakenstein or his monster. I want to feel compassion for the monster in his only desire for love and to not be alone but at the same time I fear that if I had met him in the city that I would scream in fear and desire to kill him myself. As far as Victor, he is someone who at times I felt sorry for and other times I wanted to hate him more so than the monster for his crazy ambitions to do such a thing and then to abhor and desire the death of his creation. A great book that I would recommend to anyone.
This edition allows Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin-Shelley to shine June 28, 2008
I first read Frankenstein my freshman year of high school. When asked about it, long after I stopped carrying about the novel with too many complexities for even a bright 14 year old to understand, I would simply say "I know that Mary Shelley is [radical feminist] Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter, but you would never know it from Frankenstein."
I reread the novel for my Goth Lit class freshman year of college when I was better able to understand the intricacies of the text. For the first time, I did see saw Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter. Numerous reviewers before me have expounded upon the "Man trying to usurp God with Reckless Science" themes of the novel, concentrating on the Reckless Science (so like what we see paralleled today) while ignoring the phallo-centric characteristics of the science that Victor Frankenstein practices.
The man's science relentlessly pursues and forcibly unveils a decidedly feminine and reluctant Nature, and manages to bypass the feminine entirely with the creation of monster that came simply from the work of a man. Frankenstein houses a genuine fear of female sexuality (just looks at the dream he has following his monster's creation, in which his beloved, while in his embrace, becomes the corpse of his dead mother).
I know my argument might seem shoddy here, but Hindle (the editor) puts together a wonderful introduction that, among other things, connects Frankenstein's science to his maleness.
The are many editions of Frankenstein. I feel that this one stands out because of its fine scholarship.
Frankenstein (Penguin Classics) February 8, 2008
As far as I have gotten in the book it is a good piece of Literature. I am reading it for a Literature Course in School.
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