Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
I got a giftcard for an audiobook service, so I listened to this one as an audiobook narrated by Alison Taylor. I never knew much about this book or of its’ creator until recently when I watched the Mary Shelley film on Netflix. It painted an interesting image of the woman and the book! I was therefore intrigued to read the book and quite honestly it was very different to what I had previously imagined, although the film had hinted towards that already.
Background: The story of Frankenstein started as a short story in the summer of 1818, when Shelley was travelling in Europe with her future husband and they stayed in Geneva with Lord Byron. In order to amuse themselves Lord Byron came up with the challenge that all the people present should write as scary a ghost story as they could, which initially prompted Mary Shelley to come up with the idea for Frankenstein (and another guest, John Polidori ended up writing the book “The Vampyre” without which Twilight might never have existed you know).
Synopsis: The way that Frankenstein is written is interesting for it is written both in epistolary form and in the form of a frame story, where one of the characters begins by telling Frankenstein’s story in a letter to their sister, but within that narrative Frankenstein also explains the monster’s side of the story. So it’s a bit like a story within a story within a letter within a book. So many layers. Like an onion. The story also opens at scene set in the North Pole, when the actual story is drawing to a close. Frankenstein is chasing his monster when he comes across a ship which is on a scientific discovery voyage, and so Frankenstein begins to tell the story of the monster.
Victor Frankenstein studied in a university where he became intrigued by the idea of creating life or bringing dead to life and so he begins to work on what will become his monster. It’s not his intention to create a monster but when he sees the creature he has brought to life Frankenstein is terrified of it and wants to abandon the monster. The creature however, does not wish to be abandoned, feels lonely and tries to find companionship where he can. Because of his appearance it’s not easy for him and so he wishes for Frankenstein to create a partner for him. He does not wish to create another “monster” and this is when the original creature he created really turns on his creator.
Review: I rated Frankenstein at 4/5 stars. Although Frankenstein is supposed to be some sort of a horrid ghost story, I did not find it actually scary, but rather sad. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say that I’ve seen the meme which says something like “everyone thinks that Frankenstein is the name of the monster in ‘Frankenstein’, but this is incorrect. However, if you read Frankenstein, you realise that he, in fact, is the monster” and let’s just say that I finally understood it. In the Mary Shelley film I’ve seen it is alluded to that in her marriage Mary Shelley herself might’ve, at times at least, felt as lonely as the ‘monster’ did when he was cast aside by his creator. Throughout the story Victor Frankenstein fails to take responsibility for his actions and therefore is responsible for more damage than his creature. The creature merely wants to feel more human and less alone, which Frankenstein fails to understand or take seriously. Because of this Frankenstein also drives himself to feel isolated from other people. I think that humanity, responsibility and loneliness are some of the greatest themes explored in this novel which Shelley manages to do justice for.
So I enjoyed the narrative perhaps more than I had expected and the themes it explored were interesting to me. The pacing of the book was a bit off however, therefore not worthy of five stars for me. Like I said, I listened to this as an audiobook, and had I been actually reading myself, I think that I would have found the start of the book a bit difficult to get through, but the story does pick up and get better! The pacing could’ve been improved throughout the book but generally the beginning was the slowest bit. If you struggle with it, I suggest trying an audiobook. Since it’s in the public domain, you should be able to find one easy enough on YouTube etc.
I recommend this to fans of classic, gothic novels, or to people interested in the history of the science-fiction genre!
