I bought this for my son for a school reading assignment. He did not like the book at all. Me, on the other hand, I liked it. I read it years & years ago but I enjoyed it the 2nd time around.

One word. "Endeavor"

This word was used ATLEAST 4 times a page on every page of the book when Victor is talking.

By the last half of the book, I was so fed up with her lack of vocabulary that I just could not stand to read it anymore.

Horribly written. Decent plot, though. I will give her that.

3 Words best describe this book: wordy, contrived, and melodramatic. I LOVE reading classics, but this one consistently disappoints. A lot of classics are wordy, and a lot of Gothic tales are contrived and melodramatic, but at least the pay-off is worth the effort. Sadly, I cannot say the same for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Hollywood does a better job with the story than the original author.

came next day in perfect condition my sister needed it for school and she was very pleased thank you

On my recent travels, I finished reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Written in the Gothic style, it's also written as one would tell a ghost story: minimalist in its descriptions of setting, focusing on character and action more than anything else. It's written in the first person, with varying narrators allowing for varied points of view. Despite the threadbare descriptions of setting, Shelley does a good job of conveying with those few words key aspects of the setting, giving her story great atmosphere.

Gothic stories always are high on emotion, and not high on reasoning thought, and this is no exception. I am still left wondering how folks can consider this a work of science fiction. It is more fantasy than science fiction: man takes on the role of God, man's creation, like God's, goes awry, and the pair are locked in a monumental struggle. Fantasy's themes often go to the nature of characters trying to choose between right and wrong, while science fiction's themes go towards the consequences of technology and science, without the necessity of morality, and Frankenstein tends towards fantasy under that line of thinking...hence, the alternate title, "The Modern Prometheus".

All in all, an entertaining, and quick read.

In Mary Shelley's novel, there are various statements about the use of science. The field of eugenics is brought into question. The issue of cloning is brought into perspective way before its time. Shelley's novel is prophetic in so many ways for revealing the debates and scientific issues of contemporary times. From the recent FDA consideration of livestock cloning to genetically engineered crops, these controversial issues have been compared to Frankenstein science. Other past scientific innovations such as the use of pesticides like DDT have led to failure and proved dangerous for human civilization. These too were once compared to Frankenstein science, yet humankind persisted on using these chemicals, all for reasons of convenience and capital ambition on the part of corporations involved. We may see Shelley's Frankenstein as the first great scientific warning to humans in an industrial world. It may also be seen as the beginning of environmental awareness. This awareness concerns humans within their own environments such as parent/child relationships and childhood influences, as well as human impact on nature.

This "enriched classics" is a bowdlerized version of Mary Shelley's original text. It eliminates passages, changes the diction, abridges the chapters, and changes the entire structure of the novel. Our school bought this edition thinking that the additional notes would be helpful to students studying the text, but there was no indication at all on Amazon's website that this version had been substantially altered by the editors. The book is so bowdlerized that our school bought an entire new set of texts for the students at a considerable finanacial loss for the school. WHATEVER YOU DO, BUY SOME OTHER VERSION OF FRANKENSTEIN. THIS ONE IS A MONSTER CREATED BY SOMEONE WHO HAS NO RESPECT FOR THE AUTHOR. BANTAM, PUFFIN, OXFORD -- THEY ARE ALL FINE. Irene Nicastro, English teacher, The American School of The Hague.

When people think of horror, the image of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein can generally be expected to pop into their heads, usually within the first minute of the word "horror"s utterance.
Yet Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is not horror. It is science-fiction - and, for that matter, one of the first works of science-fiction ever written, as well as one of the most brilliant. While many of the nineteenth-century authors who boldly dove into the realm of the unknown came back with fascinating baubels that are now horribly dated, "Frankenstein" maintains its power and prescience in three ways:
1) Its foremost theme is that of life itself - what is it that separates inanimate tissue from its living counterpart, and what in turn can give sentience to what might otherwise be a mindless organism. The answers to these questions have not yet been discovered, and are indeed probably in greater controversy today than they were in Shelley's own time.
2) Another aspect timeless aspect of this book is its exploration into the responsibilities of creation - not merely scientific creation, but of any sort of creation, of any situation in which a human being with an idea sees it through to the finish, only to find that unexpected consequences await him/her.
3) The drama itself - of a man fleeing from a monster, and of a monster trying desperately to assert his manhood - is as poignant as it is profound, and the reader who isn't moved by the plights of both these characters lacks either the heart to care or the brain to understand.
It is a shame that people today associate the word Frankenstein with cheap and formulaic horror films. Indeed, there is a fair amount of irony that Frankenstein is often thought of as a run-of-the-mill hideous monster, when indeed it was precisely that sort of knee-jerk superficiality and intolerance that Shelley herself was trying to combat. Either way, Frankenstein is one of those rare books that managed to create its own genre without later being dated by countless similar efforts. No matter how great future science fictions writers may become, they will always walk in the shadow of Frankenstein.

When people think of horror, the image of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein can generally be expected to pop into their heads, usually within the first minute of the word "horror"s utterance.
Yet Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is not horror. It is science-fiction - and, for that matter, one of the first works of science-fiction ever written, as well as one of the most brilliant. While many of the nineteenth-century authors who boldly dove into the realm of the unknown came back with fascinating baubels that are now horribly dated, "Frankenstein" maintains its power and prescience in three ways:
1) Its foremost theme is that of life itself - what is it that separates inanimate tissue from its living counterpart, and what in turn can give sentience to what might otherwise be a mindless organism. The answers to these questions have not yet been discovered, and are indeed probably in greater controversy today than they were in Shelley's own time.
2) Another aspect timeless aspect of this book is its exploration into the responsibilities of creation - not merely scientific creation, but of any sort of creation, of any situation in which a human being with an idea sees it through to the finish, only to find that unexpected consequences await him/her.
3) The drama itself - of a man fleeing from a monster, and of a monster trying desperately to assert his manhood - is as poignant as it is profound, and the reader who isn't moved by the plights of both these characters lacks either the heart to care or the brain to understand.
It is a shame that people today associate the word Frankenstein with cheap and formulaic horror films. Indeed, there is a fair amount of irony that Frankenstein is often thought of as a run-of-the-mill hideous monster, when indeed it was precisely that sort of knee-jerk superficiality and intolerance that Shelley herself was trying to combat. Either way, Frankenstein is one of those rare books that managed to create its own genre without later being dated by countless similar efforts. No matter how great future science fictions writers may become, they will always walk in the shadow of Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley was the daughter of the famous feminist and author, Mary Wollstonecraft, who is best known for her work The Vindication of the Rights of Women. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a young university student, Victor Frankenstein, obsesses with wanting to know the secret to life. He studies chemistry and natural philosophy with the goal of being able to create a human out of spare body parts. After months of constant work in his laboratory, Frankenstein attains his goal and brings his creation to life. Frankenstein is immediately overwrought by fear and remorse at the sight of his creation, a "monster." The next morning, he decides to destroy his creation but finds that the monster has escaped. The monster, unlike other humans, has no social preparation or education; thus, it is unequipped to take care of itself either physically or emotionally. The monster lives in the forest like an animal without knowledge of "self" or understanding of its surroundings. The monster happens upon a hut inhabited by a poor family and is able to find shelter in a shed adjacent to the hut. For several months, the monster starts to gain knowledge of human life by observing the daily life of the hut's inhabitants through a crack in the wall. The monster's education of language and letters begins when he listens to one of them learning the French language. During this period, the monster also learns of human society and comes to the realization that he is grotesque and alone in the world. Armed with his newfound ability to read, he reads three books that he found in a leather satchel in the woods. Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, Milton's Paradise Lost, and a volume of Plutarch's Lives. The monster, not knowing any better, read these books thinking them to be facts about human history. From Plutarch's works, he learns of humankind's virtues. However, it is Paradise Lost that has a most interesting effect on the monster's understanding of self. The monster at first identifies with Adam, "I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence." The monster, armed only with his limited education, thought that he would introduce himself to the cottagers and depend on their virtue and benevolence; traits he believed from his readings that all humans possessed. However, soon after his first encounter with the cottagers, he is beaten and chased off because his ugliness frightens people. The monster is overwrought by a feeling of perplexity by this reaction, since he thought he would gain their trust and love, which he observed them generously give to each other on so many occasions. He receives further confirmation of how his ugliness repels people when, sometime later, he saves a young girl from drowning and the girl's father shoots at him because he is frightful to look at. The monster quickly realizes that the books really lied to him. He found no benevolence or virtue among humans, even from his creator. At every turn in his life, humans are judging him solely based on his looks. The monster soon realizes that it is not Adam, the perfect being enjoying the world, which he is most alike. Instead, he comes to realize that he most represents Satan. The monster is jealous of the happiness he sees humans enjoy that he has never attained for himself. The monster tells Frankenstein that he found his lab journal in his coat pocket and read it with increasing hate and despair as he came to understand what Frankenstein's intent was in creating him. The monster curses Frankenstein for making a creature so hideous that even his creator turned from him in disgust.

Shelley's intent here is plain to see. "The fate of the monster suggests that proficiency in `the art of language' as he calls it, may not ensure one's position as a member of the `human kingdom." In a sense, she is showing that both her parents were mistaken when they advocated greater education reform for people. They thought education would make people better, which in turn would improve society for all. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein contradicts this belief.

Starting with the full title of Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus one can instantly see that mythology was integral to her book. Lord Byron, poet and friend of the Shelley's was writing a poem entitled Prometheus, and Mary was reading the Prometheus legend in Aeschylus' works when she had a dream, which was the impetus for her book. The Greek god Prometheus, is known for two important tasks that he performed, he created man from clay, and he stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. The stealing of fire really angered Zeus because the giving of fire began an era of enlightenment for humankind. Zeus punished Prometheus by having him carried to a mountain, where an eagle would pick at his liver; it would grow back each day and the eagle would eat it again.

The presence of fire and light in this gothic story helps to point to the similarities to Prometheus and Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, in Shelley's book. The book uses light as a symbol of discovery, knowledge, and enlightenment. The natural world is full of hidden passages, and dark unknown scientific secrets; Victor's goal as a scientist is to grasp towards the light. Light is a by-product of fire that the monster learned quickly when he is living on his own. The monster experienced fires' duality when he first encountered it in an unattended fire in the woods. He is mesmerized by the fact that fire produces light in the darkness in the woods, but is shocked at the sensation of pain it gives him when he touches it. Victor is defiant of god in the same way that Prometheus was defiant of Zeus. Victor steals the secret of life from god and creates a human out of spare body parts. He does this out of an altruistic wish to spare humankind from the pain and suffering of death. Thus, Victor Frankenstein embodies both aspects of the Promethean myth creation and fire. Victor in a sense has the same experience with the fire of enlightenment similar to his monster; he is "burned" by the fire of enlightenment. Victor also suffers from the classic Greek tragic condition of hubris for his transgression against god and nature.

The book also adopts two other great mythic legends. One is Adam from the Bible. Victor Frankenstein bears striking resemblance to Adam and his fall from grace for eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The other is Satan, a mythic figure that Shelley admired from her readings in Milton's book Paradise Lost. In an interesting juxtaposition of booth myths, she expands on the motif of the fall from grace in her book when she portrays the monster comparing himself to Adam; after he read, Milton's book Paradise Lost. The monster tells Victor, that he at first identifies with Adam God's first creation. "I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence." However, after several incidents of mistreatment that he suffered from the humans he encountered in his travels; the monster soon realized that it is not Adam, the perfect being enjoying the world, which he was most alike. Instead, he came to realize that he most represented Satan. The monster's feelings of hatred and despair stem from the fact that humans found him grotesque to look at and would not accept him as a member of human society. The monster cursed Victor for making a creature so hideous that even his creator turned from him in disgust. Thus, it is obvious for all to see that Shelley's Frankenstein is replete with mythological references and they are central to the plot.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.

Every time Frankenstein is mentioned, I'd always picture the huge green guy in the movies. When my brother-in-law introduced and encouraged me to read the book, I thought that it wasn't going to be worth the time after I saw the poorly done movies. My brother-in-law said it was one of the best books he's ever read. I told him that I'll try to find the time to read it. It has been six years and I've never touched the book. One day when I was assigned to read a pleasure book for my English class, I randomly chose whichever book that was lying around my apartment. The book was Frankenstein and I'll say that I'm glad I picked it up.
The first thing that caused me to be sucked into Mary Shelley's novel is the style of writing. Frankenstein's narrative is in first person point of view. In the first part of Frankenstein, Walton, the ship captain who rescued Frankenstein, was the speaker. The narrator shifted to Frankenstein who told for the rest of the story. In other words, it was like telling a story in the story which Shelley did a great job at. In addition, I was amazed by the author's choice of words. Her vocabulary is fairly high which caused me to search in my dictionary every now and then.
The greatest part about Frankenstein is the depth and analysis of the monster which Frankenstein created. Victor Frankenstein discovered the science to infuse life onto the unanimated and thus created the monster. The monster is powerful in strength and huge in size but his mind is that of a newborn. Abandoned by his own creator, the monster learned about his surroundings by himself. He learned the seasons and how to create fire. All this was done by observation. Also by observation, he noticed love and companionship are essential for life. But it was men who taught him to revenge and evil.
Frankenstein an awesome book and I recommend it to anyone. There are a lot of themes that are covered in this book. After finishing the book, it gave me a deeper outlook on life. That is, don't judge a book by its cover.

Frankenstein is one of the most beautifully written novels I've ever read. Besides its smooth style of writing, it has also enlightened me thourgh two major themes. The first is its revelation of indivudal's fragility compared to nature's unparalled power. The main character Frankenstein's desprate endeavor in creating a monster of perfection is equivalent to an attempt to completely control one's fate and get ride of nature's influence, which results in nature's retaliation as the monster slaughter all the people connected Frankensten. The second is the excitement and fear from solitude and loneliness. The former feeling exists before Frankenstein successful created the monster and the latter feeling arises after the experient is accomplished and done. These two extreme feelings shown in the book, coincide with our daily experience, showing how loneliness can help a person achieve the extraordinary and how it can make a person suffer from the unthinkable, the despairing, the worst.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, written in 1818 is amazing in part because it is still so readable and enjoyable. Based on my vast experience with bad horror interpretations of monsters, I expected this book to be dull with a main character who was both slow and stupid. Not so. Shelly creates a monster who possesses a reasonable IQ and incredible physical abilities. This book has a good plot, dialogue and fast-paced story. It is easy to read, understand and has an unanticipated ending. Highly recommend for middle school and above.

Mary Shelley writes in the vernacular of the time in which she lived--verbose and overblown. This romantic language in no way detracts from the fact that Frankenstein is a masterpiece.

The monster Frankenstein has created is constantly referred to as a "daemon (sic" and a fiend. Yet this monster excites our sympathies because of his abject need for affection and acceptance. At the end he calls himself an "abortion."

The novel Frankenstein can be interpreted as a morality tale warning against hubris and overweening pride in one's own powers of intellect and invention. Frankenstein is obsessed with creating life. He finds out that once he has accomplished this deed, that life which he created is forever his master. The creature Frankenstein has created makes Frankenstein his slave.

Without regarding this novel as a morality tale and taking into account the gothic nature of this writing, one can also sympathize with the feelings of rejection, loss, love and affection demonstrated throughout the book by all of the characters.

Ultimately, I found Mary Shelley's Frankenstein worthwhile because the novel helped me realize just what it is to be human.

As I read the novel I thought always of how much better it could have been. Mary Shelley wrote that she originally conceived "a few pages -- of a short tale" but that Percy urged her to develop the story at greater length (p. 283). Mary should have stuck to her instincts. The book is way too long; it would have been much better as a short story.

Moreover, the entire tale of the monster is ludicrous. We never learn anything about how the monster is created, but he certainly is a fast learner! The monster runs away from Victor Frankenstein and hides for several months, living off the land. From where he hides he observes a family's comings and goings. While hidden, he somehow gains the equivalent of a university education, reading Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives, and the Sorrows of Werter (p. 151). Then he flies into a murderous rage and demands that Victor create him a mate. When the monster realizes that Victor is stalling in the girlfriend-production department, he turns his rage toward Victor, follows him across many lands, and carves long, threatening messages into trees and rocks (pp. 253-254).

The silly monster story might have been easier to take if the novel had left open the possibility that the monster did not exist. For most of the book, such a possibility is open. The entire novel is a series of stories within stories. Robert Walton, the Arctic explorer, writes letters to his sister. The reader's vantage point is that of Robert's sister. Victor tells Robert his story, which Robert passes on to his sister. Victor hears the monster's story and passes it on to Robert, who passes it on to his sister; likewise, with letters Victor receives from his father and sister; and so on. For almost the entire book, all that Robert knows about the monster is what he has heard from Victor. The better ending to the novel would have been for the monster never to appear except in Victor's version of events. In that way Robert, his sister, and consequently the reader would have been left with a choice about whether to believe Victor's kooky monster story or instead to believe that Victor either made it all up or is delusional. Unfortunately, that choice is foreclosed when the monster makes an appearance on board Robert's ship at the end of the book (pp. 270-275).

In "Frankenstein," Mary Shelley claims that one needs to be careful at decision because according to the decision awful consequence comes. The main character, Frankenstein, decides to make creature that is similar with human being when he only has shallow knowledge about what he is going to make. Due to the fact that he builds monster with carelessness, he can't handle his beast and the creature kills his youngest brother, Williams. Also, he determines to chase monster when he is filled with rage toward the creature. He can't have proper thoughts about what he comes to conclusion. He follows the monster up to North Pole and dies. However, when he has lots of time to think about the problem and is prudent, he comes to a right decision. He have doubts about his experiment to make female monster and decides to destroy it, because it can be harmful to society. Therefore, not to face dreadful results, individual needs to spend enough time and be careful when he makes decisions.

I'm probably biased, because I hate the romantic period for its namby-pamby emotional fireworks, and I think Frankenstein epitomizes that. Everything is so dramatic to the point of being histrionic, and annoyingly so. Honestly, the author's life and the inspirations for the novel were a lot more interesting than the novel itself, which was neither scary nor emotionally involving. If anything, I felt little besides sheer ire toward the protagonists. This book awakened my schadenfreude. Unless you have to read it for school or something, stick to the legend of Frankenstein as the monster, not his creator.

Mary Shelley had a great idea for Frankenstein... creation vs. creator is always an interesting topic, but Frankenstein is as dull as it gets! I had to read this book for school and I could barely get through it- the plot goes nowhere, and important parts of the book, such as the creation of the 'monster' happen very quickly. I had expected to read a true classic, but after reading it, I suggest watching one of the many movie versions despite their differences from the book.

Happily for movie-goers, Frankenstein movies resemble this book only slightly. The pathos for each is launched when Victor Frankenstein, a young college student, creates a live monster from "dead parts." However, I was surprised to find that Mary Shelley's novel provides no description of how Victor, after much unexplained experimentation, "creates life" and animates a collection of bones and other unspecified ingredients. Further, she fails to explain how the monster is able to quickly and easily become a fluent speaker, reader, and writer with no instruction. She asks us to accept that the monster, at 8 feet tall, moves undetected, through much of Europe, for years. The plot is so obviously contrived and unsophisticated that the novel fails the most basic test of fiction. Shelley did not move me to suspend disbelief.

Next, all of her characters speak in the same voice. Parents, children, Victor, the monster, and the narrator/ship captain all use the same kind of speech and similar vocabulary. This adds to a problem of weak characterization. We do find, however, that Victor is very, very, very tortured and that the monster is very, very, very hideous and evil.

I am sure that in her era, Shelly's style was more accepted, even expected. The overwrought melodrama, the endless agony, and illness and death resulting from tortuous melancholy are all Victorian hallmarks. However, her failures as a writer of fiction made this a difficult, unrewarding read for me. I allow 3 stars for the dynasty of horror and comedic films that arose from her kernel of a good tale.

I bought this book and I have had problems with the version. I have reason to believe that this is the original version from 1818, although many schools call for Shelley's revised 1831 version. However, the version isn't stated anywhere in the book.

Subtle differences in the two texts include Elizabeth's relation to Victor (she is a cousin in this novel, an orphan in the 1831 version), the chapter organization (part of this version's chapter 1 is the other's chapter 2), and various other minor occurences (in the other version, Victor and Walton discuss the seriousness of the journey and the possible loss of sailors, which doesn't occur in the 1818 book).

If you are buying this book for school, I would advise checking version's because the subtle differences can really mess you up on tests and reading checks.

Frankenstein---The word conjures up an image of a gigantic monster out to demolish mankind and everything attributed to it,an ogre created by man bent on dissolving his maker in utter misery. "Frankenstein" has travelled over the ages to become synonymous with destrution,blood,murder,havoc,fear and everything and anything that's even remotely associated with evil. "Frankenstein" has become a cliche.


And that's exactly where the greatness of the authoress Mary Shelley rests. The plot in the novel is simple enough---a young ardent man steeply soaked in "natural philosophy" creates a monster with his genius,regrets his doing,asunders it and then suffers the agony of his own architect---but the classic proportions of the tale are vividly accounted in the entwining philosophies,morals,allusions and allegories that it invokes to. It's indeed a wonder that Shelley could've exploited an innovative, simple idea to garb it into a massively broad saga at the tender age of 19,but then again, that's what you call greatness. Take Mozart for inatance. He was composing symphonies and sonatas when he was barely six!


Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" begins when a friendless, doughty and resiliently ambitious seafarer Robert Walton saves a strange man from the brink of death amidst a sea of ice whose first words are:"Before I come on board your vessel, will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?" This is Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein and the whole novel revolves around him and the monster he had created. Walton writes to his sister Margaret in England about the fall of Frankenstein from greatness and as the tale unfolds from the man of science's own shivering lips, we've taken on a ride on a wave that flatters to deceives.


Victor Frankenstein is a young Swiss who leaves his hometown Geneva to pursue natural philosophy at the University of Ingolstadt. His knowledge of Cornelius Agrappa, Alberta Magnus and Paracelus pushes him towards a realm beyond the confined boundaries of chemistry and two years of dedication and devotion and Professor M.Walton's "words of fate,enounced to destroy" him and he reaps a result of magnanimous proportions. He creates "the daemon", his "own vampire, my(his) own spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to men", a monster whose gigantic stature,ugly features,hoarse voice and crude appearance repugnates its maker and Frankenstein denounces him. And denounces his fortune,career, family,peace of mind and charm of life.


For the monster,unbaptized and solitary,comes back again and again to haunt the Swiss. It first kills his youngest brother William,then transfigures into the cause of the doom of the innocent Justine Moritz who's falsely charged with the child's murder;the ogre puts Frankenstein's childhood friend Henry Clerval to death,mortifies his father to his death-bed,destroys the life of his love Elizabeth on their wedding night,allures his creator to death's dwelling and ultimately drags himself to te inevitable end.


The plot then is as plain as white paper,as ever so slightly whispered earlier, but that the scope of discussion of characters and events is as extensive as the horizon is illustriously brought to the picture as we explore the landscape of "Frankenstein". The reader cannot help but sympathise both with the creator and his creation---one repenting his "unhllowed arts" for being "not in deed,but in effect" the curse and murderer of one's family,and by extent,mankind;the other willing to harmonise oneself into the fabrication of society when one's physical features are not withstanding. The notion of Frankenstein an ignorant and languid person pets is that of a hideous fiend mustered from animation pictures and cartoons but the essence of it transcends much farther from this simple and debvastating prejudice.


The theme of the novel,that of man inviting his own destruction and being chased by his own myriad forces of vices,is disturbing enough and the sophistication even more muddling. Frankenstein is a distorted harmless young man who realises his blunder when it's too late. A man shadowed by a curse he himself has raised and who loses one beloved after another is always going to transpire confusement and indecision and so does he who actually makes the novel happen. He seeks revenge but knows not how,he is compassionate towards his "fiend enemy" but refuses to show it. The reader embarks on his queerness not to fulfill his promise and manufacture female partner for his creation. Frankenstein reasons with himself that two fiends would be one too many for the world to endure and their posterity could aspire to evilry. But was he right to believe what Brutus did of Caesar in William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"? That "He would be crown'd:/How that might change his nature, there's the question.....Fashion it thus:that what he is,augmenter,/Would run to these and these extremities? That he should kill his own child and "sport thus with life"?


And indeed was Frankenstein's monster as terrible and catastrophic as he deciphered him to be? In the struggle of this fiend to congregate his being with men and their ways,we find an underlying sense of pathos and self-consciouness expressed bluntly and confusedly. At one moment, the colossal beast stoops down to piti and submission:"Was I then a monster,a blot upon the earth,from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?" On another occasion,he tranmutes into a figure of abhorrence and disastrous:"You are my creator, but I am your master;obey". This juggling of self-assertion and self-submission makes the giant a confused,complex individual as well as a victim of circumstances since his motives are misconstrued. The cruel end of his strangely pleasant relationship with the cottagers and the rustic soughting "to destroy the saviour of his child" provide testimonies. The reader discerns his parallel with Shylock in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice",whose tale too is a tragedy of circumstancs, the awkwardness and hardships of a Bohemian surviving on the fringes of human attachment.


The similarities between the Creator and the Creation are in abundance and are stark. Both are equally anguished---the Creator rueing His germ of an idea to build anything so splendourly ugly and the Creation questioning his independence and the Creator's need to make him. This is the allegory,or if you will,the theme of of Shelley's darkly eerie narrative. The invokation to the first-person narrative,the plethora of similes and metaphors,the lofty diction and the intricacy of language augment to the authoress's aim to portray the dark shades of life on a more gentle and lighter backdrop. In Frankenstein's pursuit of his monster,the authoress alludes to man's constant hunt of vice in his own self,in the fiend's direct conveyance of his mortal,spiritual and moral wounds,Shelley reveals the hopelessness of the socially deprived;in the end, she hungs upon the wall the conclusion that all such chases ollide with. Herman Melville's classic "Moby Dick" ran on a similar line and it,like "Frankenstein",is a tour de force. First publisher in 1818 and set against the era of the eighteenth century, Mary Shelley's intuitive idea dressed in wondrous clothes sparkling with divine metaphysics and resonding portayal of life,truth and futility sustains a powerful impact on us even long after w've closed the book and started chasing our own Frankenstein's monster.

Frankenstein---The word conjures up an image of a gigantic monster out to demolish mankind and everything attributed to it,an ogre created by man bent on dissolving his maker in utter misery. "Frankenstein" has travelled over the ages to become synonymous with destrution,blood,murder,havoc,fear and everything and anything that's even remotely associated with evil. "Frankenstein" has become a cliche.


And that's exactly where the greatness of the authoress Mary Shelley rests. The plot in the novel is simple enough---a young ardent man steeply soaked in "natural philosophy" creates a monster with his genius,regrets his doing,asunders it and then suffers the agony of his own architect---but the classic proportions of the tale are vividly accounted in the entwining philosophies,morals,allusionsand allegory that it invokes to. It's indeed a wonder that Shelley could've exploited an innovative, simple idea to garb it into a massively broad saga at the tender age of 19,but then again, that's what you cal greatness. Take Mozart for inatance. He was composing symphonies and operas when he was barely six!


Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" begins when a friendless, doughty and resiliently ambitious seafarer Robert Walton saves a strange man from the brink of death amidst a sea of ice whose first words are:"Before I come on board your vessel, will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?" This is Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein and the whole novel revolves around him and the monster he had created. Walton writes to his sister Margaret in Englang about the fall of Frankenstein from greatness and as the tale unfolds from the man of science's own shivering lips, we've taken on a rie on a wave that flatters to deceives.


Victor Frankenstein is young Swiss who leaves his hometown Geveva to pursue natural philosophy at the University of Ingolstadt. His knowledge of Cornelius Agrappa, Alberta Magnus and Paracelus pushes him towards a realm beyond the confined boundary of chemistry and two years of dedication and devotion and Professos M.Walton's "words of fate,enounced to destroy" him reaps a result of magnanimous proportions. He creates "the daemon", his "own vampire, my(his) own spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to men", a monster whose gigantic stature,ugly features,hoarse voice and crude appearance repugnates its maker and Frankenstein denounces im. And denounces his fortune,career, family.peace of mind and charm of life.


For he monster,unbaptized and solitary,comes back again and again to haunt the Swiss. It first kills his youngest brother William,then transfigures into he cause of the doom of the innocent Justine Moritz who's falsely charged with the child's murder;the ogre puts Frankenstein's childhood friend Henry Clerval to death,mortifies his father to his death-bed,destroys the life of his love Elizabeth on their wedding night,allures his creator to death's dwelling and ultimately drags himself to te inevitable end.


The plot then is as plain as white paper,as ever so slightly whispered earlier, but that the scope of discussion of characters and events is as extensive as the horizon is illustriously brought to the picture as we explore the landscape of "Frankenstein". The reader cannot help but sympathise both with the creator and his creation---one repenting his "unhllowed arts" for being "not in deed,but in effect" the curse and murderer of one's family,and by extent,mankind;the other willing to harmonise oneself into the fabrication of society when one's physical features are nt withstanding. The notion of Frankenstein an ignorant and languid person pets is that of a hideous fiend mustered from animation pictures and cartoons but the essence of it transcends much farther from this simple prejudice.


The theme of the novel,that of man inviting his own destruction and being chased by his own myriad forces of vices,is disturbing enough and the sophistication even more muddling. Frankenstein is a distorted harmless young man who realises his blunder when it's too late. A man shadowed by a curse he himself has raised and who loses one beloved after another is always going to transpire confusement and indecision and so does he who actually makes the novel happen. He seeks revenge but knows not how,he is compassionate towards his "fiend enemy" but refuses to show it. The reader embarks on his queerness not to fulfill his promise and manufacture female partner for his creation. Frankenstein reasons with himself that two fiends would be one too many for the world to endure and their posterity could aspire to evilry. But was he right to believe what Brutus did of Caesar in William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"? That "He would be crown'd:/How that might change his nature, there's the question.....Fashion it thus:that what he is,augmenter,/Would run to these and these extremities? That he should kill his own child and "sport thus with life"?


And indeed was Frankenstein's monster as terrible and catastrophic as he deciphered him to be? In the struggle of this fiend to congregate his being with men and their ways,we find an underlying sense of pathos and self-consciouness expressed bluntly and confusedly. At one moment, the colossal beast stoops down to piti and submission:"Was I then a monster,a blot upon the earth,from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?" On another occasion,he tranmutes into a figure of abhorrence and disastrous:"You are my creator, but I am your master;obey". This juggling of self-assertion and self-submission makes the giant a confused,complex individual as well as a victim of circumstances since his motives are misconstrued. The cruel end of his strangely pleasant relationship with the cottagers and the rustic soughting "to destroy the saviour of his child" provide testimonies. The reader discerns his parallel with Shylock in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice",whose tale too is a tragedy of circumstancs, the awkwardness and hardships of a Bohemian surviving on the fringes of human attachment.


The similarities between the Creator and the Creation are in abundance and are stark. Both are equally anguished---the Creator rueing His germ of an idea to build anything so splendourly ugly and the Creation questioning his independence and the Creator's need to make him. This is the allegory,or if you will,the theme of of Shelley's darkly eerie narrative. The invokation to the first-person narrative,the plethora of similes and metaphors,the lofty diction and the intricacy of language augment to the authoress's aim to portray the dark shades of life on a more gentle and a lighter backdrop. In Frankenstein's pursuit of his monster,the authoress alludes to man's constant hunt of vice in his own self,in the fiend's direct conveyance of his mortal,spiritual and moral wounds,Shelley reveals the hopelessness of the socially deprived;in the end, she hungs upon the wall the conclusion that all such chases ollide with. Herman Melville's classic "Moby Dick" ran on a similar line and it,like "Frankenstein",is a tour de force. First publisher in 1818 and set against the era of the eighteenth century, Mary Shelley's intuitive idea dressed in wondrous clothes sparkling with divine metaphysics and resonding portayal of life,truth and futility sustains a powerful impact on us even long after w've closed the book and started chasing our own Frankenstein's monster.

this book was soo boring i stopped reading it because the book took forever to get somewhere. WASTE OF TIME!

I was required to read this book in college for my information technology & society course. At first I was hesitant, for I was not generally a fan of books that I was required to read in class, with the exception of "The Importance of Being Earnest." However, I found that, as with "Earnest", I was pleasantly surprised. I became so absorbed in the book that it only took me two days to read it. "Frankenstein" is a story that questions ethics, society and relationships. It is dark in the same way as "Dracula," but unlike "Dracula", which is also a fine book, there is an undertone of tenderness and sadness. The monster and Dr. Frankenstein both become neither hero nor villain, and the reader finds themself wondering whose side to choose.

I have always wanted to read the original Frankenstein. Now I wish I had just stuck to watching the many movies with this iconic character. After reading the original, I am at a complete loss as to how Hollywood arrived upon the famous monster played by Boris Karloff in the 1931 movie. The real monster is nothing like the square-headed, heavy-footed greenish creature that we all know and love from movies.

This book is slow moving, filled with stilted dialogue, sluggish prose and none of the familiarities of the story most of us have come to expect. The monster speaks eloquently (no incoherent grunts) of his desire to have a mate. Frankenstein cannot bring himself to create another so the monster kills everyone near and dear to the doctor. This leads Victor Frankenstein to chase the monster, hoping to catch and destroy the life he once created.

Of course I can't tell you how it ends, only that it is nothing like the monster story most of us know. The book is actually told as a series of letters from a man who has encountered Dr. Frankenstein and who is retelling what the doctor told him. The idea of reanimating dead tissue is interesting but not really explored. The monster was not created by lightening and in fact we have no idea how Dr. Frankenstein even did create his biggest mistake.

The story is about the relationships between the doctor and the monster, the doctor and his fiancý (not really much of a love story although it is often touted as one) and the doctor and his best friend. I'm not really sure how this is a "classic" except it is such an unusual premise for a story. However, the writing and the plot of the book are mediocre at best.

This book is truly worthy of the term "classic". Mary Shelley began writing this novel at the young age of 18, yet managed to create a landmark work of fiction. The story is interwoven with ever-present social and ethical questions. What does it mean to be human? What are the consequences of using scientific technology to play the role of Creator? How far is too far when tampering with the order of the universe?
Upon my first reading of this book I was pleasantly surprised to find that the creature is very intelligent and human-like, though grotesque in appearance. It is a shame that the Frankenstein creature is universally represented in the minds of the public as an oafish and very dimwitted monster with bolts in its neck and a green pallor. The true Frankenstein is far more intriguing. I love the parts of the book that are a first person narrative by the "creature".
I highly recommend this book as it is an enjoyable piece of classic literature. If you are a fan of horror, read this for an understanding of the early roots of the genre that you so love, and that those roots actually formed intellectual arguments and contained actual substance. This book is a must read for the well rounded reader. In fact, had I graduated from high school and never read this book, I would begin to question the quality of my own education.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a classic in the horror genre and to me it far outshines Broker's Dracula and his other novels which can sometimes appear like turn of the century pulp fiction horror. Shelley was a masterful writer who conveyed a powerful theme at the core of Frankenstein. It was the 19th century, the earlier half of the century. Shelley, the infamous poet Lord Byron and another writer were on vacation and living in a castle. They made up a bet. They were to write a work of horror and the writer whose book was the most frightening and intense and most successful was to receive honors by the group. Mary Shelley had a phantasmagorical nightmare which became the plot to Frankenstein. What a way to write a book. Since its publication, it has become an instant classic and attained popularity for years. Hollywood has made various movie versions. Kids still dress up as Frankie for Halloween. Mary Shelley wrote more than a horror piece that was meant to win a bet. Indeed it is intensely scary but its message is strong. In the 19th century it was a cautionary tale. Darwin's theory of evolution was out and man was accomodating themselves into a new, secular world full of inventions and scientific progress. Medicine became more advanced. Industry boomed with railroads, steamships, factories, and later in the 19th century- film, phonographs/record layers, telephones and electric lightbulbs. Shelley was urging people not to lose their faith in God as a creator and that to play God could spell disaster.

Doctor Frankenstein represents the modern man, the atheist, the scientist, the new creator. It rings true today since we are so advanced in our science that we are able to produce new life both bacterial in form and human cloning. Dr. Frankenstein is a naive idealist. Initially, he believes that by creating this man from the cadavers of human beings, he will create the ideal man, free of evil and a figure of hope for mankind. Perhaps Dr. Frankenstein's mistake still applies to scientists today ? Will cloning humans turn out to be a huge disaster ? Will they be more monstrous than human. But it's interesting to note just how human the monster can be beneath his monstrous exterior. He feels human emotions like other people - love, hate, anger. This way, Shelley blurs the line between humanity and monstrosity. We are ourselves monsters because we continue to engage in war, build bigger weapons and believe we are indestructible in our technilogical progress to the extent we sometimes lose our soul. Frankenstein is just that a monster because essentially he is a human missing a soul. Each phrase, each description is poetic, vivid and powerful in is imagery and symbolism. This is the only true literary horror novel that one can make essays and master thesis on. No other work can do this. Perhaps only Anne Rice novels but for the most part, horror novels seem to lack the literary themes that this book contains. If you still haven't read it, and have seen the movies, don't expect it to be the same. This is on a class of its own. But most assuredly the book is better.

I have to add this to the top of the list of books that I have had to read but HATED! Let's see it was up there with Call of the Wild, The Odyssey, Farenheit 451, The King Must Die, True Grit, When the Legends Die, etc...I think you get my point. It is as if the teachers and district pick the worst possible books. Frankenstein has SOOO much potential to be great, however it falls abysmally short. I am sad to say that I had to read this horrible book front to back without the option of throwing it in the fireplace like I was so longing to do. We even had to read the lame(for lack of better word) letters at the beginning. Our teacher said that most teachers don't make their students read those--I guess he is not one of those teachers.

Book Review

A strange man is met by a ship headed through Antarctica and tells a story about making a monster and its destroying of his life. A man on the ship writes letters to his sister telling about their voyage and how they met a strange man by the name of Dr. Frankenstein. In the letters he retells Dr. Frankenstein's story of the creation of a monster that he abandons right after giving life to. Because it was so hideous nobody could meet it without running away and his creator abandoned it. With the lack of friends the monster is driven crazy and demands Dr. Frankenstein to make him a woman companion. When his request is turned down he promises a life of misery to Dr. Frankenstein and it keeps its promise. With all friends gone Dr. Frankenstein chases the fiend in hope of vengeance all the way to Antarctica were he gets on this ship. While on the ship Dr. Frankenstein dies and the fiend comes in to see his fallen creator. The fiend then repents and leaves the captain of the ship with the promise of burning himself alive. Frankenstein by Shelly is a sad, warning for the future, descriptive book worth every minute it takes to read it.
This book builds very sad images while your reading along. The short story the monster tells about secretly helping a family but when it goes to confront them is beat with a frying pan and drove away it gives you a feeling sorrow for the monster. But when you read about Dr. Frankenstein's newly wed wife screaming as the monster strangles her to death you feel hatred for the monster and sad for Dr. Frankenstein. And even more heart compelling is when the monster is standing over its creator grieving and repenting for all the horrible things he has done to Dr. Frankenstein.
During the book people are warned the possibilities of what would happen by giving life to a creature by man. It says by doing this you make a monster unable to be loved by the nicest of people. It also implies that by making a creature your just making a burden for yourself. Another factor proposed in the book that would disapprove of the making of a human is the chance of a violent natured monster set out to harm its creator and not a nice monster only there to help.
The book is very descriptive in all aspects. The formation of the fiend is very in depth and the feelings the monster goes through are numerous. The landscape and harsh conditions the monster has to endure and the way he survives is covered, and the mental state of Dr. Frankenstein is always known.
If I could I would reread the book to have the same emotions I had the first time round. It was a very sad book that carried an important message for people about the creation of a human in a descriptive manner. It was a fun experience for me and I am sure it will be for you also.


(...)

This is an immortal tale about hybris, love and hate, justice, racism and the responsibilities of scientists.
Its fundamental question is: 'Had I the right to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? ... future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.'

The 'unhallowed arts' of Frankenstein produce a 'filthy mass that moved and talked', but it is nevertheless a human being with normal human aspirations: 'Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good, misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.'
But, Frankenstein is a 'painted bird': 'Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me? I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.'
His reaction is : 'If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear.'

Mary Shelley's vision of mankind is far from rosy: 'I heard of the division of property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty.' 'A man was considered, except in very rare circumstances, as a vagabond and a slave, doomed to waste his powers for the profits of the chosen few.' 'Was man yet so vicious and base? I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow.'
Her world is one of resentment, racism and jealousy: 'religion and wealth had been the cause of his condemnation.'
But, 'how strange is that clinging love we have of life, even on the excess of misery.'

Frankenstein is the scion of the evil principle, the invention of a man-scientist and a 'painted bird', who is therefore not accepted by the rest of the human race. His reaction is revenge.

This is a great text by an 18 year old.
As Oscar Wilde said in 'The Critic as Artist': 'For when a work is finished it has as it were, an independent life of its own, and may deliver a message far other than that which was put into its lips to say'.
Some texts become even more important and luminous with time, like this masterpiece.

A must read.

"Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me... I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous." This was said by none other than M. Frankenstein's monstrous creation. To me this quote sums up one of the most important themes in the book. This theme being that all life is very difficult to deal with, but we still strive to live even if times are very hard. It also throws up the question: Are we born pure and good? Because the monster says that when created he was all about being a good man, but now that he is miserable he is a bad person. Mary Shelley wrote this book on a dare from Lord Byron in 1816. This was supposed to be a ghost story, even thought to me it doesn't really seem like a ghost story, but more of a story about playing god, and about life's hardships. Two of her daughters died during infancy, only one son survived. Her husband drowned while sailing in 1822. Mary Shelley died at the age of 53 in 1851. As you can see her life was full of hardships, and loneliness. This makes a lot of sense because if you read Frankenstein you get a sense of horrid loneliness throughout the entire novel. Emotionally this book plays a toll on pity for M. Frankenstein as well as the monster. No one is happy for more than a page or two in this book, and during this rut of happiness they are constantly nagged by something in the back of their mind. It is a very good story and has a lot of very good points about life in it, but the book leaves you feeling...cold and alone.

Victor grew up reading the works of Paracelsus, Agrippa, and Albertus Magnus, the alchemists of the time. Toss in a little natural philosophy (sciences) and you have the making of a monster. Or at least a being that after being spurned for looking ugly becomes ugly. So for revenge the creature decides unless Victor makes another (female this time) creature, that Victor will also suffer the loss of friends and relatives. What is victor to do? Bow to the wishes and needs of his creation? Or challenge it to the death? What would you do?
Although the concept of the monster is good, and the conflicts of the story well thought out, Shelly suffers from the writing style of the time. Many people do not finish the book as the language is stilted and verbose for example when was the last time you said, "Little did I then expect the calamity that was in a few moments to overwhelm me and extinguish in horror and despair all fear of ignominy of death."
Much of the book seems like travel log filler. More time describing the surroundings of Europe than the reason for traveling or just traveling. Many writers use traveling to reflect time passing or the character growing in stature or knowledge. In this story they just travel a lot.
This book is definitely worth plodding through for moviegoers. The record needs to be set strait. First shock is that the creator is named Victor Frankenstein; the creature is just "monster" not Frankenstein. And it is Victor that is backwards which added in him doing the impossible by not knowing any better. The monster is well read in "Sorrows of a Young Werther," "Paradise Lost," and Plutarch's "Lives." The debate (mixed with a few murders) rages on as to whether the monster was doing evil because of his nature or because he was spurned?