Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Jan 1869 · Sever, Francis, & Company

About this ebook

Frankenstein was published in 1818, the work of a 21-year-old genius named Mary Shelley. Hundreds of movies, adaptations, and monster masks later, its reputation remains so lively that the title has become its own word in the English language. Victor Frankenstein, a scientist, discovers the secret of reanimating the dead. After he rejects his hideous creation, not even the farthest poles of the earth will keep his bitter monster from seeking an inhuman revenge. Inspired by a uniquely Romantic view of science’s possibilities, Shelley’s masterpiece ultimately wrestles with the hidden shadows of the human mind.

Ratings and reviews

I knew going into this book it was going to be starkly different from the movie, but I still had hope that I would enjoy it. Sadly, I did not find much to enjoy. It feels overtly stuffed with flowery language (I know this was made around the period where romanticism was made but still) and uninteresting. It's a book where a man creates a human being who then goes and kills people, and yet it's still very uninteresting. I had this book on my shelf for a while, but I never got to actually reading until my English professor asked us to do a paper on it. Writing a paper about something is pretty easy if your interested in the subject matter of said paper. One can guess how much I disliked this book by how the paper I had to do on it was the most excruciating paper I've ever written.

Having had to study this book for my finals, I'm well aware of the plot, how grossly misunderstood it is, and how the original can not fill the boots of it's vastly superior retellings. A teenage romance cruelly rebuilt in the guise of a horror novel, with the only consistent theme being of an unhealthy obsession between man and beast. Filled with unoriginal, shortsighted, and patently unrewarding prose, this is a book wholly undeserving of its hype. This is one book best left shelved.

Haven't ever read such a pathetic story. I abhor it till I live. It appears as though the story has been made slow and pathetic purposefully by the author. It continuously describes the agony and remorse felt by Frankenstein. I couldn't understand why the author dedicated at least 100 pages of the whole book for this purpose. It just got me sad and I felt Ill never be happy again. The author has thrown logic to winds in an effort to make the book extra gloomy.

About the author

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in London in 1797, the daughter of well-known intellectuals. She married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816 and spent much of her adulthood in continental Europe, surrounded by her friends in the English Romantic Movement. Her tumultuous life included the loss of three children in infancy and her husband’s death by drowning in 1822. Nevertheless, her contributions to English literature continue to fascinate and inspire readers and artists alike.