Books

I think you are viewing this book from the lens of today, after two hundred years of perfecting the genre. This was a rather new type of writing back then. Edgar Allen Poe was only 8 years old when this was written. This was an 18 year old author exploring a new type of story telling heavily influenced by at-the-time revolutionary philosophical ideas. Yeah, it's clunky, but it also explores things that weren't being explored back then.

Also, your question about how the monster was created was somewhat described. We ARE told where he got the biological material. He sourced the body materials from the dissecting room and slaughterhouse. Additionally, he didn't stitch the body together like the idea that was created by the movie in the 1930s. He discovered a fundamental element of life that could imbue dead tissue (not necessarily body parts, but not-alive tissues) to have it form into something that lived. This isn't a book about science, so the author didn't go into details for how the thing was created. Also, it's one thing to create a work of art that sucks if you aren't a good artist. It's another thing when that ugly drawing or sculpture you tried to make suddenly springs to life.

A lot of supernatural novels used to do that with dates. And names sometimes. I think because most of them were set in real places (like in War of the Worlds the first third is basically my old commute) and authors didn't want people familiar with the setting thinking, "that's not right!" all the time.

I love reading the classics like Frankenstein. Not because they are all great but because you can see the origin of iconic pieces of culture. Sometimes you love them and sometimes you wonder why they got so popular. I remember liking Frankenstein when I read it but that was a while ago I forgot why. Got to try again

Didn't Polidori end up writing the first vampire story?

Couple notes you might find of interest: Depending on the version you read, most modern versions were heavily edited to make Mary Shelley sound more like her husband. If you can find the earlier ones, she's got a better tone, cadence, and less purple prose.

Also: I agree, that book is a freaking ride, esp for possibly the second sci-fi book of all time, and you're right that the movies pretty much skip the majority of it.

My favorite is that one of the best sci-fi horror stories of all time basically came about as an excuse to avoid talking to Lord Byron on a long holiday :D

I also read this only recently and had a similar experience with it.

One of the things that stood out to me though was that for the entire length of the book, the only person ever mentioned to have seen the monster was Frankenstein himself. As you said, it's an 8 foot monster roaming Europe, and apparently there are zero sightings beside Frankenstein himself, who repeatedly just happens to see him in the distance. The only other people supposedly to have seen him are the French family, but Frankenstein only hears this from the monster's own account. And supposedly the few people that get strangled, but they're killed off page and unable to disclose their killer. Also the story isn't told from an omniscient narrator. It's all Frankenstein's personal account.

Given all that, the weirdness of this giant man seemingly randomly appearing, never being seen by anyone else, killing people off page, etc. and even Frankenstein's own account of making the monster in a vague fugue state sounding like a manic episode, or some kind of madness... I totally thought we were intended to think that maybe Frankenstein's monster was a figment of his imagination, his psychosis, and maybe that he was also the one blacking out and killing people. That would have definitely made the whole "Frankenstein is the monster" argument have a new meaning for me. But alas, at the end of the story, a third party finally witnesses the monster kill Frankenstein and confirms it's existence. I kind of wish it hadn't been seen. It would have made the story and all of the culture around the film assuming that the monster was real more interesting. But, oh well.

I have to say, I enjoyed it, but I had the benefit of the Bernie Wrightson illustrated edition. ;)

It’s funny how differently people can react to a book. I loved Frankenstein. I didn’t find it boring at all, and I thought the writing style worked, and the characters didn’t annoy me at all.

Now take Moby Dick. Man that book was a SLOG, and I hated the entire thing. And people love that book.

Shrug

Sorry you didn’t like Frankenstein. Maybe the next book you read will be your absolute favorite - maybe we are inverses of each other - try Moby Dick? :)

Wait a minute. First, I completely agree that she won. By a fucking lot. But I have to hand it to Byron, he wrote what Polidori would turn into the whole fucking modern vampire genre. And I don't want to live in a world without The King of Cartoons playing Blackula. So here I am in 2025, caring very much.

It seems like your reaction to Frankenstein was very much the same as mine.

It's original for its time so I tried to read it through that lens, but man did I struggle with it.

Thank you! It's been more than 10 years since, but 10th grade me struggled HARD to get through Frankenstein (it was a summer read for my English class), for pretty much the exact reasons you've listed out. The doctor is just such a whiny little bitch, I despised every moment spent with the character and was incredibly relieved when the monster finally put the little shit out of his misery (and by extension put an end to my suffering).

The part of my brain subjected to entirely too many English literature studies gets it: the notion of being so caught up in if something is possible you don't stop to think about the repercussions is super transcendent of time. Like, I keep thinking about Oppenheimer and the other scientists of the Manhattan project, so I can absolutely see how it would be a horror story from Shelly's time. At the same time, the rest of my brain can't get past the doctor being incapable of learning any lessons at all.

I do so agree with your tl/dr. All that whining really bummed me out!

A couple months ago I posted a completely different review of the book. I enjoyed it, but I'm glad that I read it, so that I could enjoy your review.

Spot on send up of the whole book! You really made me chuckle.