Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
‘Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart …’
Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley’s chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron’s villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world’s most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.
Based on the third edition of 1831, this volume contains all the revisions Mary Shelley made to her story, as well as her 1831 introduction and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s preface to the first edition. This revised edition includes as appendices a select collation of the texts of 1818 and 1831 together with ‘A Fragment’ by Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori’s ‘The Vampyre: A Tale’.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
The Classics Club
The Reason
It was my online bookclub’s BOTM, and it’s one of my favorite classic horror stories.
The Quotes
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
“The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.”
My Thoughts
It’s one of my favorite classic horror books but it’s been a while since I read it. Rereading it again now, there are a lot of details I’ve forgotten, but the question of who the real monster is still truly intrigues me. I love how it’s an exploration of human nature, even though one of the MCs is not really human. I love that there is a spotlight on fathers and their roles as parents. We often see mothers being scrutinized for their parenting, but here it’s the “father” who’s the only person responsible for the parenting.
I love that this book is such food for thought about the human condition and what it means to be human, the need for love and belonging regardless of your origins. It’s heartbreaking to see what can happen when people don’t get the love and care they desperately need. I also think that despite being categorized as creature horror, it’s also very much social horror and very relevant to the human condition today.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
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