Author: Mary Shelley
Pages: 230
Publisher: Harper Press
Summary
A young scientist gets a little too enthusiastic about his research and starts doing unethical experimentation that leads to him reanimating a dead body. His creation is so ugly, that the scientist pretty much loses his shit and falls into depression, while the monster roams the land trying to find his place in the world. The monster, who gets shunned by everyone who sees him, becomes vengeful and sad and asks his creator to give him a companion, but not before murdering a few people. When his creator refuses to create another monster, he sets out to ruin his creator's life even further.
Discussion
I'd just like to remind everyone that the scientist's name is Victor Frankenstein. The monster is not called Frankenstein, but he is the monster made by Frankenstein. Frankenstein's monster. Got it?
This book is considered one of the first real pieces of science fiction, if not the first, and I can already appreciate it solely because of that. Like, Mary Shelley started writing it when she was eighteen and got it published when she was twenty. I have mad respect for the lady.
I liked the book. I found it really difficult to get through though. At times, it felt incredibly slow and it overwhelmed me with information that I sometimes didn't feel was even relevant. It was very descriptive, which was often nice, but in this case I really just wanted to get to the point. Yes, the mountains are pretty, Victor, and it rained dramatically for a while and you spent days in the thick of it, but seriously. What about the innocent people who died? What about the monster? He's sad and lonely. You should fix that. He also murdered people. You should fix that too.
Frankenstein was very poetic when he described all the bad stuff that happened to him though, so was the monster, and I thought it was all very pretty and eloquent.
However, Frankenstein was incredibly whiny and his monster needed to get over himself. At times I really felt like telling him: "Yes, Victor. You fucked up. We get it. Now fix it, for goodness sake and stop trying to run away from your problems. If it doesn't work for me, it definitely won't work for you."
This was a really difficult book for me, but despite that I still really enjoyed it. I liked how it explored the idea of humanity and suffering and ethics. The ethical questions posed by this book are still pretty relevant today and I found it interesting how a lot of the problems stem from Victor's pursuit of knowledge and how selfishly he goes about it. I found the monster's side of the story incredibly sad, because he didn't mean any harm initially and if people had treated him better, then he might not have felt that he needed to turn to violence. Still, his sad life doesn't justify the murders he committed. Also, I find it ironic how creation ultimately turns into destruction in this novel, how Frankenstein's creation eventually destroys everything he loves.
I feel like there would have been significantly less drama if Victor stuck to reading about science. Everyone's lives would have been easier, because there wouldn't a creature made of the body parts of several dead people murdering innocent folk and scaring the bejesus out of everyone else.
Favourite Line
There's a ton of really beautifully descriptive lines I could share with you, but I'll share with you a weird one instead.
"It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night."
The only reason I chose this line is because it made me giggle. I guess the monster and I share a pervy streak. I know it was supposed to be a threat and it was supposed to be foreboding, but I just ended up imagining the monster spying on Victor and Elizabeth while they consummate their marriage, and I thought "Dude. No. Come on. That's weird and wrong and you're so much better than that. Let them do their thing and kill him later."
Verdict
I liked it. I really, really liked it. Once I got through it and took some time to reflect on what I got out of it, I realised that it was actually a good book. It's dark, it's sad, it's kind of scary when you try really hard to make it scary. It is a classic and I would definitely recommend it.
Rating
Video Review
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