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Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus

By Mary Shelley

(1097)

| Others | 9780863076824

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26 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

This book does have its flaws. I found it clumsily structured, with at least one framing device too many. Also, after the climactic wedding night Victor Frankenstein's part in the story accelerates to a rushed and unrewarding conclusion.
There were two things central to my enjoyment of the nov ... (continue)

This book does have its flaws. I found it clumsily structured, with at least one framing device too many. Also, after the climactic wedding night Victor Frankenstein's part in the story accelerates to a rushed and unrewarding conclusion.
There were two things central to my enjoyment of the novel however. One was the sense of Gothic menace arising particularly from Victor's vacillations in the face of his moral debt to his vicious, brooding and eloquent monster. The other was its progressive message, as articulated by Frankenstein's creation in its implicit vindication of the rights of those beyond the pale, be they monster, murderer, foreigner, slave, pauper, bastard or woman.
Often claimed as the first science fiction novel on the spurious basis of its act of creation, a barely-examined plot device, it is the book's social commentary which makes it more naturally a father to modern soft sci-fi.

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calebuck said on Sep 5, 2009 | 1 feedback

2 people find this helpful

I read this for a modern novel English class in College. This is actually a great story - much better (and very different!) from any movie rendition I have seen. There is a whole other side to the story of the "monster" and this is pretty much an essential read of classic fiction.

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karattack said on Jan 4, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

Last night I also finished Frankenstein which I LOVED. Unfortunately Pandora's Breeches had given me the basic story arc but it was still nice to see it played out. Having read that first it was also interesting to see the relationships between the men and their largely unseen female counterparts. T ... (continue)

Last night I also finished Frankenstein which I LOVED. Unfortunately Pandora's Breeches had given me the basic story arc but it was still nice to see it played out. Having read that first it was also interesting to see the relationships between the men and their largely unseen female counterparts. THe plot was so unlike any hollywood production, so many extra characters, so much traveling and despair.
I'm not really interested in ethics but I am really interested in psychology, what makes people people and how and why they behave. This book was just a fantastic enquiry into the nature of man. I found the writing to be beautifully articulate, I loved how eloquent everyone was, including the monster. For me it was a very visual book, I could picture the hovel cottage on the remote Scottish island, and the boat stuck in the ice. I can't believe that I waited so long to read it. I'm sure I'm going to end up reading it again several times. It was just really really good!

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Robot-mel said on Sep 1, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Perfect picture of all human feelings

Fantastic book, I found all the human feelings in a few pages: love, friendship, hate, anger, fame, etc. The description made by the monster of the "wooden" family is simply marvellous, the true heart of the book. Moreover, it is a book not so difficult to be read, even by an Italian :)

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Ologib said on Oct 22, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Better

I enjoyed this more than expected

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Bosmond said on Jul 2, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

took me an unreasonable amount of time to read a book this short.
Most likely it's because of how it's written (reading foreign literature from a different century is NOT easy), but also I found really difficult to get invested in the story.
I remember reading an abridged version for my english clas ... (continue)

took me an unreasonable amount of time to read a book this short.
Most likely it's because of how it's written (reading foreign literature from a different century is NOT easy), but also I found really difficult to get invested in the story.
I remember reading an abridged version for my english class in high school, and watching the movie in class, and falling in love with the story; too bad I didn't feel any love at all this time.
And the reason is Frankenstein: he finds a way to create life from death, he works on his creature for months with such passion and dedication that his health is damaged, and then, the very moment his creature gains conciousness, it's like he looks at him for the first time and he's so disgusted THAT HE THRUSTS HIM OUT OF HIS HOUSE HOPING TO NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN. His creature, his newborn creature, and he just abandons him with words of horror and disgust the moment he is born.
And for the rest of the book, Frankenstein slowly drowns in guilt and self pity for unleashing such a monster on humanity.
A monster, he calls him, a fiend, a daemon.
And all the time his guilt is about creating him, and never, NEVER, about how he failed him as a creator/father.
So the creature teaches himself everything, and he's good and he loves beauty, but the moment he tries to reach out to other people they treat him horribly, so the creature gets mad and starts killing people. Not nice I know. But still. He wasn't faulty in his design, he was left alone and treated badly by every single human being he met.
Frankenstein is a horrible human being, and while the things that happen to him are really tragic, I sympathyse more with the creature EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

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Mag said on Feb 7, 2011 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback