Frankenstein

Rating:
Summary: Effect of Frankenstein
Review: What can you say about Frankenstein? Mary Shelley was truly an inspiring author, she is probably one of the greatest authors of our time. The way she described the monster, Frankenstein, and many other characters in the book. If you have not read this book yet, you should be deeply ashamed, it taught me so many things about life and how precious it is. Frankenstein is about a young man who creates a monster, the monster is very lonely and as a result begins to kill Dr. Frankensteins family and friends. Loneliness can be a small thing to some people, or can be a big thing. This is why we need to take part in the world today and comfort the lonely, sad, or self-distrout. If we don't, there is no telling what may happen. I strongly encourage every person to read this book, it will keep your interest going and I guarantee you won't be able to put the book down.

Rating:
Summary: There's something about a classic ...
Review: How can a story written at the turn of the last century have direct relevance to our times? Shelley's gothic tale about the artificial creation of life depicts the risks of scientific hubris and the unanticipated consequences that can follow. It calls to mind Robert Oppenheimer's second thoughts about the creation of the atomic bomb, modern genetic researchers who are moving ever closer to human cloning, and the unanticipated environmental risks of greenhouse gasses and nuclear energy. This classic speaks to us from the past about philosophical and moral issues that apparently haven't changed as quickly as our technology.

Rating:
Summary: Misunderstood Monster
Review: Every year, millions children all around the United States dress up for Halloween, and many dress up as the malevolent Frankenstein's monster. But is Frankenstein's monster really evil? In today's society, it seems clear cut that someone who rips the heart out of an innocent person must be evil. However, this simply reflects our inability to look at such an event from a non-anthropocentric point of view. From the perspective of the monster, he only wanted revenge against a world that turned its back on him. Shelly does an excellent job of bringing you into all the pain and misery that the creature suffered ever since Victor Frankenstein created him. And as for his creator, Victor Frankenstein, was he good or evil? This ambitious young scientist wanted to play the role of God, however in his intellectual quest for understanding the nature of life, he managed to destroy everything he loved. This nicely illustrated the ethical dilemma that arises when the forces of nature are tampered with.

Frankenstein is a great read. For those who may be put off by the publication date of 1818, stick with it because the book is well worthwhile. It's much different than the popular conception of the story, which is not surprising, considering the way it has wended its way through popular culture for almost two centuries. Shelley pulls off quite a feat with this book, and rightly deserves the fame it has brought to her. Her attention to detail is magnificent, and her imagery was fantastic. The action scenes were extremely suspenseful, and they forced you to read on in order to see what happened next. Anyone in the mood for romance, suspense, agony, and action would truly love this book.

Rating:
Summary: A novel that will never expire!
Review: I was forced to read Frankenstein in gr. 11 english class. I thought it would be one of those books that have no point or moral, just as most of the books we read in english. But I was wrong the novel was one of the best I ever read. It deals with the theme of Innocence to Experience from the start to the end. And what the effects are of using power and not thinking of the consequences, making it an anywhere anytime type of novel. Marry Shelly uses the frame device through 99% of the book (it's when the whole book is being told by one of the characters, often used to make the story more believable) The book will keep you wanting to read more and more. I recommend it to everyone, the language used by Marry Shelly is pretty easy and straight forward. ENJOY!!

Rating:
Summary: Shelly's 'Frankenstein' is by Far the Best
Review: Mary Shelly's 'Frankenstein' is a wonderfully horrifying look at one man's obsession and the evil that comes from it. Victor von Frankenstein, a young and ambitious scientist, discovers the secret of bestowing life on lifeless matter. After creating a hideously deformed being Frankenstein quits the experiment and leaves his 'monster' to his own devices. Months later Frankenstein pays the price as the 'monster' seeks it's revenge. Far from the Boris Karloff idea of Frankenstein's monster, Shelly's creature is one that invokes sympathy and pity as he is cast out from the human world and forced to endure existence without companionship. The basic theme of the work is also an important moral- that obsession, if unchecked, can only result in despair. Truly a great work and one that fans of horror have embraced for over one hundred years.

Rating:
Summary: Not scary at all
Review: To those of you who don't want to read Frankenstein because it seems scary - it's not. In fact, it is book with a profound theme. It's a book with romance, some suspense, many twists, and a some sad scenes on top of it all. After reading this book, the reader either sympathizes with Victor or the monster. I thought Victor wasn't an extremely complex character who just has to deal with the wrong choices he's made. This book wasn't extremely dry, only superfluous in some parts. I admit, I just read it for my 8th grade English class, but it was one of the better classics I've read for school.

Rating:
Summary: Literary genius? Yes. Boris Karloff¿?
Review: I'm a long time fan of classic creature features. I grew up on the stuff. Saturday Monster Theater, my hometown station called it. Every Saturday afternoon at 2pm you could find me rooted two feet from the television, rods and cones soaking in the black and white flickering images of mummies and werewolves and monsters and creatures from boggy swamps. It was a genuine passion that resulted in many nightmares and a heightened imagination (and, I like to think, a warped sense of humor). One of my favorites was Frankenstein. The creature embodied the spirit of the boogey man that strode leisurely through my dreams while I ran against Jupiter's gravity. I watched it every time it played. I was around six before my dad told me that Frankenstein wasn't the monster's name. That is not truly the case in Shelley's novel - the monster moniker fits well on several characters. Hers is not the kind of gritty fright you get from The Evil Dead or the kind of nerve-fraying suspense Scream offered. In fact, it is a novel in the truest sense. It was written nearly 200 years ago in a time when it took writers years to perfect a masterpiece. It was crafted in an age when stories were told around campfires and not on the brain-sucking portal to the mindless world of programming directors and slathering yes-men. It is not concise and if you're looking for a relaxing, fast paced read to pass an afternoon, then you can stop reading now because this tome has meat. I do not believe in revealing plot in a review, so suffice it to say that this is a novel of love, obsession, vengeance and ignorance. It burrows into the psychology of a man and a "wretched creature" and you'll be surprised at what turns up. Though the most common school of thought seems to be that this novel is a twisted analogy of God and man, creator and creation, I believe it is almost a testimony against prejudice. I'm not a Shelley scholar, but this screams from the pages louder than Mae Clark from our Zenith console twenty-five years ago. A slighter lesson is that, if we confront our demons too late, we hurt the ones we love. But it is truly the story and not any theme or correlating allegory that makes this a novel worth reading. For me, it's always the story. And I will reveal none of this one here. I will say that there is no Boris Karloff lurking behind a tree within Shelley's romantically articulated pages. If you're looking for a literary companion to your childhood memories of the black and white horror staples, you won't find it here. But you're apt to find a lot more.

Rating:
Summary: Scary? Perhaps not, but....
Review: A worthwhile read nonetheless. I just finished reading this interesting and classic work. What struck me about it was not that it was particularly scary, but that it was so very sad. The main characters seem to be truly miserable throughout most of the book, and you can feel the pain of both the monster and the creator as you read. The book is well written and the characters are well developed. The story elements may be well known, but for full effect you have to read the original. I recommend this book and edition absolutely.

Rating:
Summary: An Allegory of Creation
Review: The first and final thirds of the book read as a fabulously tortured gothic tale full of unbridled ambition and tragic love. But it is the middle third of the book that transcends the genre, and exposes the reader to a beautifully touching demonstration of humanity.

Frankenstein can be read as an allegory of the creation of man by God. Creation is delineated in this book and in Genesis, by exclusion or expulsion from community with the creator. The exsistance of both man and monster require rejection by their creator to become fully human.

The middle section traces the monster's journey to personhood, and the development of his resentment. The monster learns by watching a rather ideal family through a crack in the wall, which presciently evokes our nostalgia for the life of idealized 50's families on television. Longing for a "normal" existence the monster poetically articulates his desire and his pain.

Victor Frankenstein, as the creator, shows himself unworthy of his creation, of whom he is both terrified and repulsed. Having sacrificed to his ego all he holds dear Frankenstein flees to the far corners of the earth. The monster, obsessed with confronting his creator, follows him for a final icy showdown.

Rating:
Summary: A Long Day's Journey Into Horror
Review: If you like horror, you owe it to yourself to read this book from the beginnings of the genre. You will enjoy seeing the themes in Frankenstein repeated in other horror novels that you will read in the future. The book and the movie have essentially nothing in common, so assume that you do not know the story yet if you have only seen the movie.

If you do not like horror, you probably won't like the book very much at all.

The story opens in the frozen Arctic wastes during an sea-going expedition to find a passage through the ice to the East. Aboard the ship after a strange meeting, Frankenstein tells his story. As a young man he wanted to make a splash in the sciences, and invented a way to create life. Having done so, he became estranged from his new being with significant consequences for Frankenstein and his creation. The two interact closely throughout the book, like twin brothers in one sense and like Creator and creation in another sense.

This book presents significant challenges to the reader. Like many books that relate to scientific or quasi-scientific topics from long ago, Frankenstein seems highly outmoded to the modern reader. In the era of psychological knowledge, the development of moods and character in the book will also seem primitive to many. A further drawback is that this novel takes a long time to develop each of its points (even after the eventual action is totally foreshadowed in unmistakeable terms), so patience is required as layer after layer of atmosphere and thought are applied to create a complex, composite picture. Finally, the structure of the novel is unusual, with layers of narration applied to layers of narration, creating a feeling of looking at never-ending mirror images.

So, you may ask, why should someone read Frankenstein? My personal feeling is that there are two timelessly rewarding aspects to the book that well reward the reader (despite the drawbacks described above). Either is sufficient to please you. First, the book raises wonderful ethical issues about the responsibilities of science and the scientist towards the results of scientific endeavors. These issues are as up-to-date now as they were when the book was written. Those who developed atomic weapons and biotechnology tools appear to have given little more thought to what comes next than Frankenstein did toward his creation. Second, the moods that are built up in the reader by the book are extremely vivid and powerful. The artistry of this book can serve as a guide for novelists for centuries to come, in showing how much the reader can be deeply engaged by the circumstances of the characters.

Why, then, did I grade the book at three stars instead of five? Few will fail to be annoyed by the scientific awkwardness of the story, and that is a definite drawback. Also, only the most dedicated students of style will avoid feeling like the book moves and develops its story too slowly. Less is more in novels. In this case, more is less.

I cannot help but comment that this book is perhaps the finest example of appearances being deceiving that exists in literature. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a close competitor in this regard, but that fine work definite has to fall behind Frankenstein. In this book, beings of physical beauty act in inhumane, ugly ways. Beings of great ugliness act in beautiful ways. The same being may act in both ways, in different circumstances. Looks are deceiving, and our perceptions are flawed even when our attention is fixed. If the characters could have overcome this form of stalled thinking, the horror would have been averted. So the lesson is that the misperceptions we aim at others rebound (like a reflection in a mirror) right back onto us.

If you have not yet read Paradise Lost, Frankenstein is a good excuse to read that poem. The development of the story in Frankenstein assumes a knowledge of that story about Satan leading a rebellion against God and being dispossessed into Hell.

After you have had a chance to absorb and appreciate the nice issues this book raises, ask yourself where you in your life are acting without sufficiently considering the implications of your actions. Then, commence to examine those potential consequences. You should be able to create more good results in this way, and take more comfort in what you are doing. Both will be excellent rewards for your introspection.