alice, arnna and co.

We're bookish people. We obsess over books. This month we are all about Gothic Literature!

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Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley

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Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus | Mary Shelley | Review

Haven’t had a chance to read Frankenstein, here:

At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein. [x]

Now that’s out of the way let me warn you their will probably be spoilers ahead. It was published in the 1800′s, it’s been around.

Jule: It has been a while since I read this novel, and without the support from a seminar as well -- just reading for fun, no deep discussions or term papers. So, the only thing I remember is the wonder about the fact that the monster is originally not actually evil, but kind and simple. Only when society rejects him due to his ugliness and he becomes lonely, then he turns evil-ish.

Alice: I like to think of Frankenstein as a tragedy -- more so than a horror anyway -- with little Victor delving into things he shouldn’t be and for some reason thinking it wouldn’t come back to haunt him. Victor’s monster, as Jule said, is kind but also well-spoken, anguished, ultimately discarded and left alone by his short-sighted creator. Despite how slim this novella is, Shelley manages to pack it out with characters I personally love to judge, but who also explore emotions and motives and actions in line with humanity’s obsession with the human condition. It makes this book a lot of fun to read, to delve into.

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Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity and ruin.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley

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It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley

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Frankenstein | Mary Shelley | Travel Guide: Frankenstein Castle & Others

When Mary Shelley travelled Europe in 1814, she visited the town of Gernsheim in the west of Germany. Though the town itself is pretty enough, it is also close to Frankenstein Castle. Yes, you read that correctly. 

It is pretty old, like, “first mentioned in the year 1252 and probably build in 1240″-old, can be visited today and is connected to a bunch of different myths. The name of castle and novel-hero comes from an old Germanic tribe, the “Franken” -- who are believed to have build the castle -- and “stein”, which means “stone” and is commonly used in place names around here. 

More importantly though, a doctor named Johann Konrad Dippel lived in Frankenstein Castle in 1673. Historians and the towns people debate whether this is true or not, but there is a myth that Dippel experimented with some funky stuff -- such as nitroglycerin and, you guessed it, bringing dead animals back to life -- whether myth or real, this was well-known in any case and would have reached Mary Shelley when she traveled through. 

The second important Frankenstein place in Germany is Ingolstadt in Bavaria, where Victor Frankenstein goes to university. It is also nice to look at; below is the former anatomy building of the university and the historic district during a garbs parade.

And the third place worth mentioning is Lake Geneva and the city of Geneva -- ”Genf” in German -- on the border of France and Switzerland, where Frankenstein’s family lives and much of the novel takes place.

Urgh, so pretty. Do you feel the urge to travel there yet? I know I do. 

   -- Jule.

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The whole series of my life appeared to me as a dream; I sometimes doubted if indeed it were all true, for it never presented itself to my mind with the force of reality.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley

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March Feature | Gothic Lit. | Mary Shelley

Born in London 1797, to philosopher and political writer William Godwin and feminist educator and writer Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary had a habit of intensive studying that followed her throughout her life and was often found reading and writing stories.

At age sixteen, Mary eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet, and her step-sister. Faced with financial difficulties and estrangement from both of their families, they travelled Europe and England, even after the loss of their first child. In 1816 they summered with Lord Byron in Switzerland, where he famously suggested they all write a horror story due to the inclement weather and a short-story of Frankenstein was born.

Mary and Percy wed in 1816, bridging the gap with Mary’s family, and over the course of their marriage had William, Clara, and Percy. Only Percy survived into adulthood. Her husband drowned in 1822 leaving Mary a widow at twenty-four years of age. She devoted her later life to raising her surviving son and promoting her late-husband’s poetry despite opposition from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s father.

Mary Shelley died in 1851 and until recently was only really known as the author of Frankenstein or as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The release of Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality in 1989 by Emily Sunstein was the first full biography about her life that focused on her achievements as an extensive researcher, editor and writer. Mary Shelley’s works include History of a Six Weeks' Tour (1817), Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), Mathilda (1819), Valperga; or, The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (1823), Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1824), The Last Man (1826), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), Falkner (1837), and The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1839).

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March Feature | Gothic Lit. | Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte had to have had some of the best genes in literary history, given that she is the sister of Charlotte Bronte and Anne Bronte, who also published famous Gothic novels (Jane Eyre being a personal fan of mine). Emily was the shyest and most reclusive of the Bronte siblings.

She was born on the 30th of July, 1818 as the fifth of six children. Emily was sent to the “Clergy Daughter’s School” with her sisters when she was six, but was pulled out again when a typhoid epidemic hit - of which her sisters Maria and Elizabeth died. The children were home schooled after that. More importantly, they wrote stories together, inventing multiple extensive fairy tale worlds populous with characters. (If you are interested in that part of their story, and not put off by magical realism / folk magic / fantasy mixed into a historical novel / biography - check out Worlds of Ink and Shadow).

Emily became a teacher after school, but her health suffered from the work load and she returned home to do the household chores. However, she was also focused on her education, for example teaching herself German. When Charlotte came upon some poetry written by Emily, the sisters combined their individual poems into a joint publication under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. It was not a raving success, as only two copies sold - but one of those two readers wrote to ask for autographs!

Not discouraged, Anne and Emily also published their novels together in 1847 - Anne’s Agnes Grey and of course Wuthering Heights, again using their male pseudonyms. In fact, the violence and sexual passion convinced readers only more that the novel was written by a man.

Emily Bronte died of tuberculosis - and stubbornness, since she rejected to see a doctor - on the 19th of December, 1848.

- Jule

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Arnna: You’re not talking about Wuthering Heights properly if you aren’t talking about this song.

Alice: It was great to finally understand what this song was about. Kate Bush is beautiful.

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