Frankenstein

Rating:
Summary: An Anti-Technological Warning?
Review: Think about how technology and humanity often clash with one another. For 18 years, an unidentified mail bomber kills several and wounds many, his career culminating in an anti-technological jerimiad blackmailed into mass media publication by both The New York Times and the Washington Post. Doctors in Scotland succeed in cloning a sheep, and knowingly set off both heartfelt protest and academic wrangling. The decoding of the human genome sparks scientific firestorms--as scientists debate the possibilities for both help and harm to come when new techniques of curing disease and prolonging life spring into being. The proliferation of nuclear weapons heralds a chaotic possible future that political scientists still cannot completely fathom, even as the looming shadow continues to pursue us all.

Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley, author of "Frankenstein," seemingly foresaw what lurks within all these examples. As the wife of Percy Blythe Shelley--famous even today as perhaps the greatest poet of the Romantic Era--Mary Shelley shared with her husband the concerns of many of the most humanized intellectuals on the planet. Technology in 1821 was a relatively new social force. Industrializing rapidly, the England with which Shelley was familiar had already bent beneath the weight of changes wrought by the beginning of the age of machines only decades before. Old ways obliterated themselves. New, and unfamiliar metaphors to the human condition quickly replaced them.

Considered by some as the first science fiction novel ever written, "Frankenstein," as a novel, could be and might best be considered something of oracular proportions. Sweeping in its scope, wise in its prophetic and albeit poetic assessments of what technology really means to the survival of the human spirit, the novel rises up from the predominant notions of both medicine and the ultimate purpose of technology--in that the prolongation of life and the defeat of death are the ultimate endpoints of both. Moreover, the prospects of creating life from death--and we all know the familiar scenes from the movie in which the crazed Dr. Frankenstein robs graves in the pouring rain--provide an ironic counterpoint to the major thrust of the novel's theme.

Even more ironic is that no one will ever know how Shelley might have felt to have learned that her grave warning to the human race would be hacked and cut to pieces to serve as a form of entertainment that was undreamed of in her age. What would she have thought of Boris Karloff's chilling portrayal as a blunt-headed beast of her protagonist's creation? Could she have ever dreamed that the very message beneath her life's work would be mangled and disembowled of any and all meaning? While many today celebrate the fact that Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is the archetype of the modern horror story--the birth of a monster that takes more contemporary form in movies such as "Alien" and "Jurassic Park"--few consider the powerful metaphors within the novel itself.

Unlike the movie, Mary Shelley's version begin with a harrowing encounter in the Artic--the ice cold and unhospitable axis of the world, the place by which the world turns and turns ruthlessly with no consideration for the fragility of human life--and continues with almost karmic dimensions as Dr. Viktor Frankenstein, fully and suddenly understanding the scientific terror and technological golem he has obsessively unleashed, devotes the grim remainder of his life to the destruction of what he has created. It's an old tale, too, a little like Dante entering a wood and visiting Hell, the tale of Dr. Frankenstein is synonymous with the advent of middle age: We spend our youths dreaming of our creation, and yet we spend our later years often searching for ways to destroy that for which we once dreamed.

"Frankenstein" is one of richest novels ever written. A favorite of generations, it regales in a style that is itself a vivid example of how technology and its unforseen imperitive--that we constantly hurry and curry the lowest common denominator--have turned both the novel and the English language into a strange changeling that is a pallid, shadowy reflection of an age of philosophic and spiritual grandeur that unavoidably midwived the modern age. Regardless of its richness, however, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" won't alienate a reader who gives herself to the oceanic flow of her voice. Told simply and with a passion unsurprisingly absent from contemporary prose, "Frankenstein" is a novel whose time has yet to come.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Horror Story
Review: I've never really seen the movie version of this literary classic, let alone thought about reading the book. I picked up what I thought was the story of Frankenstein by osmosis. It is now obvious that what I learned didn't come from the book, as the story is totally different from the movie versions. Mary Shelley has written an interesting tale that attacks not only technology, but the misguided belief that man can control such technology.

The story has three narrators, so readers get different viewpoints on the story. The first narrator comes across Victor Frankenstein in the arctic as he is tracking down his beastly creation. This narrator is Walton, the captain of a ship and a man on his own dangerous mission. We then get to hear Victor Frankenstein's story. This section details Victor and his education, where he is enraptured by alchemy and natural science. During the course of his studies he figures out how to animate objects, and creates a man that is to become his nightmare and his undoing. The last section is narrated by the creature that Victor has created, and the Creature's attempts to become part of society and learn to educate himself is one of the more interesting parts of the book. The creature is spurned, of course, and decides to take his wrath out on humanity in general, and Victor in particular. It isn't hard to see the theme of the story, which is that man shouldn't attempt to play God. If man is imperfect, the creatures he could create would be even more imperfect. I think the book has a nice message to events today, in that those who advance technology almost never suffer themselves. It is the rest of us that have to adjust our lives to accomodate the Bill Gates' of the world. Bill Gates and a few thousand other people really benefit. In Frankenstein, others do indeed suffer, but so does Victor. No one benefits from this beastly creation. Even the beast suffers in the extreme.

This book is indeed well written, although as with most 19th century literature, the prose takes some getting used to. It sure beats the garbage being passed off as literature today. The Penguin version, which is the one I read, is pretty good. It includes appendices that contain extra text, as well as some short horror stories written by Shelley's friends Lord Byron and Polidari. The introduction is pretty good as well, and points out some connections that the book has to other works that were circulating at the same time. Do yourself a favor and read a book like this. you'll increase your I.Q. and feel better about yourself in the process!

Rating:
Summary: ick
Review: although dover thrift editions are good for those of us who have very little money, i want to warn others, like me, who are not willing to scrape the bottom of the barrel. i made the mistake of ordering this and the symposium thrift editions and do regret it... i should have known that holding this book in my hands would be frustrating due to its awkward size and pagination. the words are crammed together and difficult to look at. (these cheapies make one aware that there is something to the art of publishing.) if you are sure that there is no other way you will read these important works, then, by all means, go ahead... but if you have to give up that cup of coffee tomorrow morning instead of going the cheapest route: please do so! i don't think you will regret it!

Rating:
Summary: Not to venture into the arena of the Gods.
Review: I really meant to title this review [A warning against "Science without Soul" or "Not to venture into the arena of the Gods."] This examination of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is far from exhaustive. There are countless interpretations, I will focus on the critique of science. The Universal Standard Encyclopedia states "The term 'Frankenstein' is now commonly used to denote any individual who suffers injury or death from an instrument of his own creation, and is frequently extended to signify the product of such creation." In this case, Mary Shelley show us the result of irresponsible 'creation' through the interaction and passion of Victor Frankenstein and his creation. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a result of several items coming together that influence the creation of this great work. The 1700's and early 1800's were full of new frontiers. Science and experimentation were the order of the day. Her partner, Percy Shelley did not escape the signs of the times and apparently, neither did she. Mary listened in on conversations between Percy and Byron concerning "the nature of the principle of life, and whether there was any probability of it ever being discovered and communicated." (The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, by Florence Marshall p. 141). The conversation also touched on Darwin's experiment "preserving a piece of vermicelli in a glass case till by some extraordinary means it began to move with voluntary motion."(The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, p. 141). No way to "de-romanticize" MWS nor to remove all her influences from trying to make sense of the book as "text".... Anyway.... The book has since been the topic of discussion in a wide range of disciplines. There is something for everyone in this book. A feminist read might include "creating a child wihtout a woman", "a woman's doubt about reproduction and child rearing". Moreover, we can slide into issues relating to the need for loving parents in moral development. We can also see it from the angle of the rejection of what is "different." In the story, Victor's brother sees the Being and rejects it! Is this a learned response or is it taught? Is it an abandonment story? Is it a story of a proud and overly ambitious creator with no regard to consequence? Is it simply a Gothic tale reminiscent of the medieval and the macabre? Is it an examination of how we treat others, an examiniation of our conscience as we "outcast" by appearance and speech? Do we learn from Walton and return to a Lucretian model of "moderation"? Maybe it is all these things and more. This story has far reaching implications as we grow from the communicaiton age of high tech to the bio engineering age. Do we heed the warnings and take a step back to consider where all these developments are taking us? I would certainly hope so. Personally, I think it is a story of hope. If we can examine and reflect on our ways in the safe space of fiction, then maybe we can apply some of what we learn to reality. A powerful and though provoking book and well worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful
Review: Although the beginning of the novel becomes tiresome, the underlying story is fantastic. It is hard to imagine that an eighteen year old girl could come up with such a grusome horror novel. Frankenstein, in addition to being a superb horror story, shows the true nature of society as a whole. Because of the monster's physical deformities, he was automatically rejected by people. Nobody even stopped to see what he truly was on the inside. This novel comes with my high praise as well as that of many other literary critics.

Rating:
Summary: Frankenstein
Review: This book was extremely difficult and hard to read-then I got past the first 5 pages. It was so interesting and really touching. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone! It really makes you think and it has a little bit of everything in it! I learned alot too. The only down side is that it was soo depressing! It really was! I would definitely recommend this book and don't be afraid to read this if you think it's too difficult, I'm 13!

Rating:
Summary: The Horror of It
Review: Shelley had written this, I believe, while only 19. She wrote it hastily on account of a bet. She wanted to out do her friends in the telling of a scary tale. What she came up with, far from her realizing it, was the greatest horror ever told.

The book is readable to say the least. The sentences go by quickly, as is not often with most books.

Briefly, then: the story is of Dr. Frankenstein who knows a science apart from university science. His colleagues talk of the frailty of human life. Frankenstein, on the other hand, learns how to manipulate the body into cheating death. He becomes obsesses by radical ideas. His family gives up on him. All the while, he creates a creature who comes alive by lightning. And then it dawns on him: he is not God, and cannot bear the responsibility for the building of a monster. For, it can be seen, right away, that he has built a monster. But the horror of it is not the monster in his own right, or the alienation of the doctor who built him, but the existential angst of being thrown into a world where things look absurd. On the one hand, we have a driven scientist who loses months in his creation. His personal relationships go downtrodden. And then, after all his passion, he in a moment sees that he has wasted himself. There was nothing in this but evil, he sees. Imagine, my friends, what it is like to devote yourself to writing 1,000 pages, only to see that, after 3 years, your book is mistaken from the first page! This is how Dr. Frankenstein, a genious, feels, in only a twinkling of an eye! Whereas the monster runs away. It hides in a cabin in the woods, where it watches, for months, how a camping family gets on. It watches how they act, how they eat, how they sleep.

The monster, nameless, has no real sense of itself. It does not grow bodily as we do. In a year or so it develops the mentality we only barely have. Frankenstein runs from it, and the monster, in turn, leaves him. And the two have left each other: one to go his way, the other to go some other way. But how shall a monster live? It is ugly. It has no home, no friends, no lover, no books, no shelter, no food, no love. It has only the brute fact of its own existence. In this sense, the reader has to feel pathos for the monster who was forced into life. A monster who wants, more than anything, a life as we have. But it cannot bear reality. It tries to be gentle, but we hate it. And so, the monster eventually kills, whereupon Frankenstein sees that it must be stopped.

To make a long story short, a chain of events follow. It comes to the point where the reader must ask himself: how 'free' is the monster? With all the build up of circumstance and rage, could it have done otherwise than it did? Could it have 'not' killed? It would seem, on the surface, that this novel is a series of 'chain reactions' that inevitably lead to one result!

The dialgoue is well done. The characters are believable. The descriptions work. The monster is at one and the same time both a monster and not a monster. Frankenstein, too, is both a man and a monster. We come to see that the world is not big enough for creator and creation. A rebellion has to occur, somehow.

I am having trouble explain all this. The book, which is easy enough, has to be read by you. You will find to your pleasure that the monster is enormously bright, and enormously dangerous.

I hoped I have helped.

Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: I was surprised by this book!
Review: Most of us are familiar with the popular conception of Frankenstein's monster: a stiff, groaning, verdant creature with bolts, stitches, and Karloff-esque features. Fewer people are aware of Mary Shelley's original intent. The literary "monster" is vastly different to the irradicable Hollywood interpretation. He is lucid, well-spoken, limber, and (at first) ripe with loving and moral intentions.

Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is a tragedy, first and foremost. Sophocles would have been proud of young Mary, only in her early 20's when she wrote this tragic tale of carelessness and consequences. Victor Frankenstein's tragic flaw is his wild thirst for knowledge, which develops into recklessness and disregard for life. He becomes consumed with exposing the secret of creation, a "forbidden" knowledge (thus the novel's subtitle, "The Modern Prometheus"). He discovers it and creates a living being, but is disgusted by the outcome and disowns his creation. Thus his original act of irresponsibility breeds another. He is ultimately condemned to pay for both.

The monster (he is never given a name, a stigma of his rejection by human society) is tragically flawed as well. Born a naive with a good heart he is nevertheless hideously disfigured and monstrous. Although he yearns for human companionship, his appearance dooms him to bitter isolation. The agony of rejection ignites a hatred inside of him and he declares war on humanity. He focuses his rage on Victor, his accursed creator. But the monster is painfully lonely and thus willing to leave Victor in peace in exchange for a companion, one created from human scrap, just like him. I won't divulge any more of the plot; suffice it to say it just keeps getting better.

"Frankenstein" is just as contemporary and significant now as it was back in the early 19th century when it was published. The grandiose themes that it addresses, such as morality in modern science, the meaning of humanity, racism, etc., are still ones that we struggle with today. But more importantly, this is a fascinating and entertaining novel! I raced through it like a Newfoundland towards water! I can't say that I was completely engrossed with every passage - there was an excedingly dull section when Victor retreats to the mountains, but it only lasts for 15 pages or so. And there is a pervasive (almost overwhelming) feeling of gloom and despair throughout the bulk of the novel, which may tend to irritate some readers. But these minor faults should not prevent interested parties from reading this novel. You're reading the review, you're interested, so buy it! You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Great classic book
Review: To me this book was great. At times it can be hard but not very often. It has a lot of deeper psychological meanings and thoughts if you take time to analyze this characters. It is a book basically about a struggle of good v. evil, but who really is the evil one, the monster or Frankenstein?

Rating:
Summary: Pinnacle of Achievement and Depths of Depravity
Review: In her classic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates a fascinating, thoroughly engrossing story about a young scientist who gives life to an inanimate creature. Through their relationship, Shelley explores the pinnacle of human achievement and at the same time the depths of degradation.

It is difficult to precisely define the relationship between Frankenstein and the monster because Shelley presents the dynamic combination of a father to a son, a creator to a subject, a master to a slave and vice versa. Their relationship seems to evolve through time and through their associations with each other. Initially, when the monster confronts Frankenstein, we witness the creator/creation perspective. "Yet, you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life?" In this exchange, the monster accuses Frankenstein of rejecting his own creation, but more importantly, he claims kinship with his creator, resolutely binding himself to Frankenstein and compelling Frankenstein to confront his own deeds and the consequences of his actions. It seems as though the monster is more aware of responsibility and devotion of one creature to another than the scientist. When the monster begins to describe his experiences with life, new sensations with nature, his fears and trepidation about associating with humans, his very survival against all odds, he takes on the role of a lost child. The relationship between Frankenstein and the monster resembles that of a father to a son, albeit a father who has neglected the parental responsibility to love, nurture and care for his offspring. The relationship even resembles that of a mother to a son, but in this context, it is Mary Shelley who is the creator of the monster through her incredible imagination. Shelley stirs our sentiments as readers, compelling us to feel for all the characters involved in this gruesome and powerfully moving story.