Book Review (Rucksack): Frankenstein

Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus

Written by Mary Shelley in 1818

The Raccoon: Let me just make this clear: the original Frankenstein story contains neither a hunchbacked lab assistant named Igor, nor a pitchfork-armed mob marching toward a tower.  To be unnecessarily fastidious, Frankenstein is actually the story of Robert Walton, an optimistic gentleman leading an expedition to the North Pole, who, when his ship becomes surrounded by ice, happens to encounter an exhausted Victor Frankenstein.

UNMASKED: For a story that inspired fifty-three movies and shaped hundreds of other pieces, the original Frankenstein is surprisingly humble.  The few moments in which Shelley tries to invoke horror all fall flat, and the Romantic era novel has little regard for action.  Instead, Frankenstein stands openly as a moral and philosophical debate, asking the reader to confront the humanity and cruelty that exist in both man and monster.

The reason that Frankenstein has been twisted and exaggerated with each new adaptation is that the novel cannot help but drag at times.  The reader witnesses the entire lives of both Victor Frankenstein and his creation in intimate detail; this leads to heavy sections of “downtime” in which Victor suffers from a constant cocktail of fear, guilt, and anger.  By the end of the novel, my connection with the protagonists was so deep that I felt as if I knew them personally, something very few authors can achieve.  On the other hand, the continuous emotional outbursts and monologues... got, like, really repetitive and annoying after a while.

Frankenstein has earned its place among the literary classics; its unique structure of layered flashbacks and constant sense of inevitability, as well as its exploration of timeless questions, qualify the novel as essential reading for any human being.  Unfortunately, while Frankenstein may keep you in your seat, you will not be on the edge of it.

Strengths:

• Every secondary character has a unique influence on Victor’s mindset and actions.  This both fleshes out the world of the novel and makes the characters and story more realistic.
• Watching other characters’ disgust towards the monster creates a much more powerful, grotesque image of him for the reader than any movie effects ever will.

Weaknesses:

• Granted, psychotherapy did not exist in Shelley’s time, but it became increasingly difficult to watch Victor torture himself, never able to move on and rekindle his passion for learning and exploration.
• The three female characters in the novel have identical one-dimensional personalities.

Rating: 17/20 brides

Ideal Setting: Read this the next time someone accuses you of being uncaring or unwilling to put your best effort into a project.  Passion leads to lifelong agony.