Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Annotated and Illustrated: The Uncensored 1818 Text with Maps, Essays, and Analysis (Oldstyle Tales' Gothic Novels)
Completely annotated and provided with maps, essays, and chilling illustrations, this unique edition of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" answers some of readers' most lingering questions, clarifies historical references, and probes into the sensitive biographical nature of Mary Shelley's landmark novel. One of the most influential masterpieces of horror in the English language, "Frankenstein" straddles science fiction, horror, romance, the weird tale, and the literary allegory. Aside from the monomaniacal student of dark arts, the pensive bride throttled in her uncreased wedding bed, and the dramatic landscapes of Arctic ice fields and alpine vistas, Frankenstein is the story of poor stewardship, failed fatherhood, lost innocence, painful alienation, social rejection, the entangled relationship between adoring love and septic hatred, and the unfairness of a world which evicts a warm, gentle, curious, and eager spirit based on the casing of its skin. It raises relevant questions of technology, scientific responsibility, racism, sexism, community, environmentalism, progressivism, tolerance, diversity, love, and social responsibility, all wrapped in a psychologically complex, chilling narrative of grave robbing, playing god, murder, necrophilia, sublimated sexuality, and existential horror.
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Community Reviews
Not the story I expected
I had no idea the tragedy that befell Frankenstein after he created his monster. Why did he marry when he had been warned? Senseless tragedy. I know it's a classic but it was not to my taste.
I had no idea the tragedy that befell Frankenstein after he created his monster. Why did he marry when he had been warned? Senseless tragedy. I know it's a classic but it was not to my taste.
So I really wanted to love Frankenstein. It was a long and hard read but I appreciate the beauty of the way Shelley portrayed that there is both good and evil in human nature and it's not always so simple to define that in a person. Inside everyone we are filled with both of these qualities. I like that the book gives you examples about good versus evil within the characters and the choices they make. There is a lot to take away from this book, Just like Frankenstein, there is plenty to take a part and put back together.
I read a review that explains him and this book just as beautifully as Shelly did "He is beyond good and evil because the peculiar conditions of his short life makes him behave in very wicked ways, yet he also shows a humane side, but that side of him is soon censored and he ends doing much more evil than good, he may have had the potential to redeem himself, but he never gets to, he is so misguided by his circumstances (being made ugly in a culture where ugly equals evil) that his behaviour is despicable, but one can feel sorry for him, he may qualify as an antivillain, or tragic hero, without the heroism. He is a tragic character and does have moral agency, but he fails to act to fully qualify as evil or good."
I read a review that explains him and this book just as beautifully as Shelly did "He is beyond good and evil because the peculiar conditions of his short life makes him behave in very wicked ways, yet he also shows a humane side, but that side of him is soon censored and he ends doing much more evil than good, he may have had the potential to redeem himself, but he never gets to, he is so misguided by his circumstances (being made ugly in a culture where ugly equals evil) that his behaviour is despicable, but one can feel sorry for him, he may qualify as an antivillain, or tragic hero, without the heroism. He is a tragic character and does have moral agency, but he fails to act to fully qualify as evil or good."
Read long ago and re-read for book club. I had forgotten the surrounding story of the ship captain on a quest for the theorized ice-free north pole sea. I had forgotten that Victor was such a whiner! He acts as if there is nothing he can do, he is completely at the mercy of his unfortunate destiny. He doesn't try to hunt down his creature or set a trap for it. Meanwhile, the creature just wants connection and is horribly rejected by everyone he meets, even his creator (what a jerk).
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