Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Frankenstein
    Frankenstein
    Frankenstein
    Ebook338 pages6 hours

    Frankenstein

    By Mary Shelley

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A timeless, terrifying tale of one man’s obsession to create life—and the monster that became his legacy.

    Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of devoted science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life, and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts; but upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature’s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Dr. Frankenstein.

    Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science-fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation, genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateMay 6, 2014
    ISBN9781476788081
    Author

    Mary Shelley

    Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in 1797, the daughter of two of the leading radical writers of the age. Her mother died just days after her birth and she was educated at home by her father and encouraged in literary pursuits. She eloped with and subsequently married the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, but their life together was full of hardship. The couple were ruined by disapproving parents and Mary lost three of her four children. Although its subject matter was extremely dark, her first novel Frankenstein (1818) was an instant sensation. Subsequent works such as Mathilda (1819), Valperga (1823) and The Last Man (1826) were less successful but are now finally receiving the critical acclaim that they deserve.

    Read more from Mary Shelley

    Related to Frankenstein

    Related ebooks

    Gothic For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Quiet Boy

      Jan 28, 2019

      The Quiet Boy
      29 min read

    • Article

      Just Trust Me: In Praise Of Strange Books

      Dec 23, 2017

      Author Victoria Schwab says she loves the books that can't be categorized, that fall between library-shelf categories, and that spark passionate debate among readers who either love them or hate them.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Scary Shorts And Super Creeps

      Mar 3, 2022

      Scary Shorts And Super Creeps
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tender Is The Flesh

      Jan 29, 2020

      RELEASED 6 FEBRUARY 224 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Augustina Bazterrica Publisher Pushkin Press This is a pretty unpleasant book. It’s clearly meant to be, but knowing that doesn’t make it any less unsettling to read. It’s set in a near future wh

      1 min read

    • Article

      How Jefferson’s ‘Pursuit Of Happiness’ Phrase Came To Be

      Jul 13, 2023

      From the time they are schoolchildren, Americans learn what happened after Thomas Jefferson asserted a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 177

      3 min read

    • Article

      BOOKS & PODCASTS

      Dec 29, 2021

      BOOKS & PODCASTS
      2 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Apr 6, 2021

      Reviews
      3 min read

    • Article

      Year In Focus....

      Apr 16, 2020

      Year In Focus....
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Good Fight

      Feb 17, 2022

      Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries by Nan Sloane IB Tauris, 304 pages, £20 On 16 August 1819 at St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, violence hung heavy in the air. Some 80,000 protesters had converged there to demand the reform

      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Minds Of The Stuart Era

      Jul 13, 2023

      Great Minds Of The Stuart Era
      3 min read

    • Article

      Pioneering Women

      May 18, 2023

      Professional housekeeper, cook, confectioner, teacher, author; Elizabeth Raffald could be described by many job titles, but the most fitting is probably entrepreneur. Having spent some years working around Yorkshire, Raffald made her name in Manchest

      3 min read

    • Article

      Prestige Without Power

      Dec 14, 2021

      Prestige Without Power
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Conversion Of Paul

      Mar 30, 2023

      The Conversion Of Paul
      8 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading! 2020

      Jul 9, 2020

      Summer Reading! 2020
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Unholy Roman Empire

      Jan 31, 2024

      The Unholy Roman Empire
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Uncompromising Life And Legacy Of Activist Sylvia Pankhurst

      Dec 23, 2020

      Pankhurst is best known for her fight for women's voting rights in Britain. But she protested oppression wherever it appeared.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Incestuous Sins Of The Soixante-huitards

      Jun 24, 2021

      CAMILLE KOUCHNER WAS IN HER EARLY teens when her twin brother told her that their stepfather, the French political analyst, Olivier Duhamel, had come into his bedroom and seduced him. “Do you think it’s wrong?” the boy asked. More than 30 years on, K

      10 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      Dec 28, 2021

      Q&A
      3 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Jan 20, 2022

      Anniversaries
      4 min read

    • Article

      On The Prowl

      Mar 17, 2022

      On The Prowl
      4 min read

    • Article

      Victorian Occult

      Jul 16, 2020

      Victorian Occult
      12 min read

    • Article

      From Worms To Woke

      May 26, 2022

      HAVE WE BEEN HERE BEFORE? Now, in 2022, with war abroad and woke at home, we contemplate the bitter dissolution of the hopes of the late twentieth century. Five hundred years ago, in 1521, Martin Luther’s appearance at the Diet of Worms signalled the

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Frankenstein

    4/5

    359 ratings323 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A classic isn't a called a classic because it's a run-of-the-mill type of book. It's a groundbreaking novel/movie/song that inspires people and stays with you forever, and it's likely that it won't be topped in one, two or sometimes three generations. A classic is a classic because it's unique, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is definitely a classic. The prose is beautiful, the story is gripping and the book itself is absolutely breathtaking. As far as horror is concerned, this is one of those must-have classics that you can revisit every couple of years.

      But we all know the story about Frankenstein and the monster he creates out of body parts. We all know who Igor is and what happens in the end, I mean, if you haven't read the book then you've probably watched one of the movies, right? So, instead of going on and on about the plot we all know about, I'm going to talk about the beautiful book. Seriously, this is one super pretty book. It's in Penguin Books' horror series, recently brought out for horror fans that includes five other fantastic titles (American Supernatural Tales was one of them). This is one pretty edition for one creepy tale ... in other words, you'll freaking love it if you have a thing for horror books. Also, I'm pretty sure it'll be a collectors edition in the not-so-distant future.


      If that doesn't appeal to you, and you need a little something extra, rest assured that I can sweeten the pot for those folks on the edge. Guillermo Del Toro is the series' editor and there's a nice little introduction by him. Yes, he's not all movies all the time, sometimes this horror director makes time for books too!


      So, yes it's pretty, yes it's a great edition and yes, the editing is great. As far as I'm concerned you can donate your other editions of Frankenstein to the less fortunate, because this one just looks so much better on a bookshelf.

    • 2/5
      Disappointing, especially for such a highly regarded "classic". 5% action, 95% describing how everyone *feels* about what just happened.
    • 2/5
      Seminal fantasy work, one of the early defining books of fantasy genre. Shame it isn't more readable though I suspect that's just my more modern tastes.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book. It's so much more than I thought it would be. Very interesting!
    • 5/5
      This is the second or third time I've read this and it's just as marvelous as before. A tale within a tale within a tale by a literary mastermind at the height of her genius.
    • 3/5
      This is another one I'd just never gotten around to reading. The story is far from what popular culture has made of it (I confess I was most familiar with the Young Frankenstein version) The monster is much more vocal and interesting. Victor is kind of a weenie and it's all a bit overwrought. I listened to the audiobook from the classic tales podcast and the narrator was pretty good, obviously enjoying all the "begone!s" and "wretchs"
    • 4/5
      My sympathies are with the monster. Victor von Frankenstein was a responsibility-avoiding, self-absorbed jerk!
    • 4/5
      As an eight year old child, I found myself in love with horror films. It was a Scholastic Press survey of horror cinema for children which appeared to crystallize this fascination. It was terrible time for a kid. We had moved twice in four years and my mom had left. My dad was traveling for work and a series of housekeepers and sitters were keeping the home fires burning. It is no surprise that I was reading all the time and staying up too late watching inappropriate films on television. That said, I was never drawn to Frankenstein.

      The father of some neighborhood friends used to proclaim the superiority of all the Universal films, especially to the hyper-gore films of the late 70s. I could agree with Bela Lugosi or Claude Rains (as the Invisible Man) but I wasn't moved by Lon Cheney Jr's Wolf Man or the lump of clay which was Frankenstein's monster. It remains elusive to distinguish.

      It was with muted hopes that I finally read Frankenstein this past week. I was pleasantly surprised by the rigid plot which slowly shifts, allowing the Madness of the Fallen to Reap Vengeance on the Creator (and vice versa). Sure, it is laden with symbols and encoded thoughts on Reason, Science and Class. Frankenstein remains an engaging novel by a teenager, one doomed by fate. It is prescient and foreboding. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Frankenstein is one of my all-time favorite books, but it's important to understand why people like my enjoy it. If you haven't read the book, it may not be what you think.I love Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. To be clear, she is not the best author ever. Some aspects of her writing are a little juvenile and at times ever downright boring. Even though she herself was a woman, her female characters tend to be somewhat shallow and idealistic. Nevertheless, Shelley has a unique and gifted mind that is almost even prophetic in character. Her novel "The Last Man," for example, is one of the first to imagine the extinction of the human race, which is now a real possibility and an important area of thought. Similarly, Frankenstein is not altogether novel, since it builds heavily on earlier Romantic language, concepts, and images especially from Goethe and Mary's husband Percy Shelley. Nevertheless, she outdoes them by imagining in a prophetic way what the technological creation of new life could mean for the human person.With this in mind, let's be clear that Frankenstein is NOT a scary book, NOT about some dim-witted or pathetic monster, and NOT a source of cheap chills and thrills. It is first and foremost about the scientist who creates the monster. He does so out of a genius that unites both modern science and premodern thinking. Specifically how he makes the monster is beside the point; Shelley is secretive on this matter so that we do not get lost. It is not evident, for example, that he makes it from corpses; he uses corpses for study, but he seems to fashion the monster directly.The principle point of the book, therefore, is the emotion of Frankenstein as he comes to terms with his own creation. That which he fashioned to be beautiful, wonderful, superior to humanity turns out in fact to be hideous, ugly, and terrifying. The monster is superior to his maker in intelligence and power but not morality, and this forces Frankenstein to face his own unworthiness as a creator.Thus while Frankenstein the book is born out of Romantic ideas about the genius, the excellence of humanity, and the transcendence of the Promethean man--the one who dares to challenge the gods by taking upon himself the act of creation--it also profoundly serves as a counterpoint to the same Romantic spirit. This new Prometheus turns out to be a mere, weak man, who cannot quite come to terms with what he has created. Thus like her book "The Last Man," Shelley poses a vital question: Is humanity really still the gem of creation, or will the transcending force of nature ultimately leave us behind in the dust from whence we came?Frankenstein is thus a book that every reader of English should engage at some time. It would help, however, to have some familiarity with Romanticism (see an encyclopedia) and to spend some time reading some poems by other Romantic writers such as Percy Shelley. A brief look into Mary Wollstonecraft's Shelley biography might help as well, since I would argue that she is deeply shaped by the continual tragedies of her life, including the loss of her mother at an early age and a complex relationship with her father.
    • 3/5
      I love this book so much more than any of the movie adaptations I've ever seen (actually, for anyone seeking horror and thrill in a story, this may be a huge disappointment), but in comparison to other novels of that genre and time period it's far from being flawless.I love the ideas in this story - the idea that one has to take responsibility for their creations, the idea that a being can be as gentle and good as a lamb, it will inevitably become a monster if it experiences nothing but rejection, the idea that just because something is scientifically possible doesn't mean that it should be done. Despite all the Romantic dressing up in this novel that makes it very clearly a product of its age, these premises are still modern and relevant.My gripe is with the characters. I'm aware that this is probably the 21st century reader in me, but - gods almighty, that Victor is a pathetic, self-absorbed piece of selfpity, full of "woe is me", much more fixated on his own emotions and tragic history than on the danger he has released carelessly on the world and without much reflection about his own role in this disaster. All his relationships seem shallow and superficial, and the only woman with a meaningful role in the story gets classically fridged to give him the final push.One day I'll have to read an adaptation from the wretch's point of view. His actions, reactions and justifications seem so much more interesting than Victor's.
    • 5/5
      Considered by many to be the first science fiction novel.
    • 5/5
      It's a wonderful, intense and superbly written novel.Don't be afraid to read it even if you don't like the genre.
    • 4/5
      A chilling tale! I read this in high school, which was a while ago, but even thinking about it now gives me the creeps.
    • 3/5
      I have thought, but this being a classic piece of literature, I'm not going to write them down for posterity. That never served me well in lit classes, and I don't foresee it going well on the internet.
    • 4/5
      Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
      I have to admit, I was somewhat weary of this book. Despite its short page count, it is very wordy and has long, large paragraphs, and that made the prospect of reading this rather daunting. However, I swallowed my pride and did it, and was greatly rewarded.

      I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.
      Frankenstein and his creature are both so interesting and complex; they're also both so pitiful. So much of their anguish and sorrow could have been avoided if not for human pride. They are both agents of horror and destruction in both action and inaction, and that made for a really interesting story.

      Besides that, it's extremely quotable.

      Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.
      I was amazed at how Hollywood has continuously gotten the story wrong, so much so that this book felt entirely unique and the twists were effective. I don't know whether I should scorn or love Hollywood for their utter failure to accurately adapt this book into a faithful film. On one hand, this book deserves a great movie. On the other, the plot integrity of a very old book was maintained. The television show Penny Dreadful had a Frankenstein story line that was remarkably close to the source material considering, and the few big changes it made were justified in the larger story.

      I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.
      The themes in this were amazing! I love complex characters and dark, ambiguous morality in my literature. To be completely honest, I sympathized with Frankenstein way more than the monster, which I hadn't thought I would going into it. I loved both characters though.

      Overall, it's a great book with an awesome story, and everyone should read it.
    • 5/5
      Despite its 19th century style and vocabulary this story still horrifies, partly because the gruesome details are left to the imagination. Victor Frankenstein does not reveal how he reanimates the creature. Stephen King would have spent several bloody chapters arranging the guts and brains and eyeballs. The motion picture image of the creature is only supported by Shelley’s description of the watery yellow eyes and the straight black lips. The pearly white teeth, lustrous flowing black hair, limbs in proportion, and beautiful features give a more godlike aspect to the monster. The violence is barely described. A dead body with finger prints on its throat. An execution. Some screams and sticks and stones to drive the creature out of a cottage. Even the death of Victor’s fiancee is but a muffled scream in a distant bedroom and a body on the bed. The true horror is symbolic, mythical, ethical, and metaphysical. Mary Shelley describes the consequences of hubris in prose while her husband gives a similar image poetically in Ozymandias. “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.”
    • 5/5
      Why did I wait so long to read this? An excellent novel and highly recommended. Wonderful.
    • 5/5
      It's taken me 70 years to read this classic. Ironically enough, I started reading it because I was reading a children's version of this book to my four-year-old grandson, and I did not want his book to put spoilers into my own classic story which I started reading simultaneously.Wow! What a novel! I never knew the "real" story of Frankenstein, nor did I know that Frankenstein was the name of the doctor who created the monster rather than the monster himself.This novel was written in 1818 by a nineteen-year-old. Another "Wow!" needs to be inserted here. The story is magnificently written. I never much in the past liked to read nineteenth-century novels, but I did learn to appreciate them more with tutored reads of selected older novels provided so kindly to me by a fellow member of LibraryThing. What I learned to do with those novels was to take notes on the story, the characters, and keep a running vocabulary. This bailed me out quite a few times during the reading of this novel as I simply cannot keep all this information in my head.What I found exceptional in this novel was the dense storyline which in some places was truly beautiful despite the grim nature of the story. This was a book about friendship (or the lack thereof) and of courage (in many different forms).I especially liked this quote from late in the story:Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.Although people associate [Frankenstein] with horror, I will only now associate that word and the novel with sadness. It is a sad world in which we live in where some of us judge others by appearance rather than by inner motive. This novel only serves to accentuate that kind of sadness (and wrongness) and puts the face of a monster we call "Frankenstein" to that kind of sentiment.
    • 4/5
      probably a 3 for pure enjoyment, but the meta fascination of how it has fit into our culture and shaped our storytelling is a huge bonus.plus she was like 18 when she wrote things because they were bored at a house party.
    • 4/5
      Not at all what I was expecting. Have seen many movie adaptations and the book is far better. Loved it.
    • 4/5
      What a classic. I've read it several times and every time find something new to admire. And at the heart, that great message that the real monster lies within.
    • 5/5
      This book isn't scary so much as it is sad, so definitely keep a box of tissues nearby when you read this.

      While I feel badly for all the characters involved, and while I don't condone the actions of the "Monster," I do definitely feel the need to mention that Victor Frankenstein is an extraordinarily oblivious and self-centered person. At least that was my perception of him.

      The book itself wasn't difficult to read and was extremely engaging, despite the fact that it was first published in the 1800's and you could really tell by the writing style. At first it was a little difficult, but not much, and I got used to it pretty quickly and soon found it to be almost lyrical. Not quite, but almost. There were times when it seemed to edge a bit on purple prose, but it wasn't in an irritating way.

      I found this book to be extremely engaging and I had a hard time putting it down from the start. It makes you think and engages your emotions as well as your reasoning. I would definitely recommend this book, even to people who don't usually like sci-fi or older books.
    • 4/5
      Much better plot than the movies. Monster created by the meddling hands of man (the modern Prometheus of the subtitle) yet made evil by man's lack of compassion. Victor spends years studying how to create life and when he does so he immediately runs away. He is not the most robust of men. He swoons, holidays for months and runs away throughout the book. Frankenstein is a bit of an idiot really and his creation has more substance. The conversations between the two were highlights.

      At times it was slightly surreal (aside from the basic plot). The monster stalking Victor like his nemesis all over Europe and indeed to the Arctic. When he appears suddenly on a remote Orkney island where Victor is trying to create a female version for the monster was almost farcical. I was almost laughing out loud at this point.

      I enjoyed this but the style was a bit flowery and bloated and some perseverance is required. Worth it though.
    • 3/5
      This is the first time I read the classic Frankenstein. I've seen movies and read variations. They always make the monster seem so relatable. However, after reading the original story, I find the monster to be malevolent and detestable. It wasn't his fault that Victor gave him life and made him hideous. I understand him being angry and lonely and lost. I get that he is looking for someone to understand him and accept him for who he is. And I get that he blames Victor, with good cause. But he kills innocents. I enjoyed the story and felt awful for Victor. He made a huge mistake and he paid dearly for it.
    • 5/5
      Why did I wait so long to read this? An excellent novel and highly recommended. Wonderful.
    • 4/5
      A classic.
    • 4/5
      Halloween re-read. Pure love.
    • 4/5
      It was good:)
    • 4/5
      Reason for Reading: I intend to read the upcoming non-fiction title "The Lady and Her Monsters" which is about the writing and background of the creation of the novel "Frankenstein" so I thought it would be best if I re-read the book to better appreciate the former.I am a huge Frankenstein fan! I first watched the Boris Karloff movie as a young child and have since seen it dozens of times. I've seen all the MGM sequels and have a deluxe DVD edition with commentaries, etc. I've also seen many, many different remakes, pastiches and parodies of the movie as well as reading Frankenstein themed retellings, comics and pastiches. I have read this, the original book, once before when I was quite young. It was one of the first books I took out of the library when I obtained an adult library card with special permission of my father at 12 or 13. (You had to be 14, or in highschool, to get one at the time). Needless to say at this point in time 30 years later, the movie version, specifically the James Whale (Boris Karloff) version is the one that I think of when I think of the Frankenstein story.When I went into reading this book I knew that it was a totally different story than what my mind recalls from the movies but I also remembered that it started in the Arctic with the monster relating his story to Frankenstein. So from this I was totally blown away with how incredibly different the actual story is to the conceived modern notion of the tale. The book is told in narrative form from three different points of view and is a story within a story within a story. Starting off with a mariner writing home letters to his sister as he starts an Arctic expedition and then becomes stuck in ice he recounts his tale and his meeting of Victor Frankenstein who stumbles upon them near death in his mad chase of his creature. Then Walton, the mariner, recounts the tale that Frankenstein relates to him of his life. The awful, hideous story of his wretched life. Halfway through this recounting Frankenstein stops to relate the story the creature pauses to tell him of his life story since he woke from the "spark of life" and wandered into the world on his own. Then it goes back to Frankenstein's narrative and finally ends again with Walton's letters. This way we get both Frankenstein and the creature's tales from their own mouths, in their own words as they were related to the person they spoke to. Neither Frankenstein or the creature are sympathetic which I found surprising, as in the movie I am deeply sympathetic to Karloff's monster. But in the novel, he is a vile, wicked, murdering beast who at first thinks he has human compassion but quickly is turned from having any and easily finds violence and revenge better to his suiting when he is not treated fairly by others. Frankenstein himself is simply mad, the quintessential mad scientist. Obsessed with his creation he thinks of nothing else, working in solitude day and night until he completes his reanimation of life. Upon first glimpse of this "life" he is so horrified that he runs from it and from this point on he becomes obsessed with finding it and destroying it, however the monster has developed his own lust for destroying Frankenstein and sets out to destroy him also, not bodily but in mind and soul by killing all who mean anything to him.A frightening tale that shows the futility and madness at playing God with science, even though the book mentions very little about religion. This edition I read from "The Whole Story" edition is a wonderful annotated edition which really brings the classics to life. The annotations don't particularly help explain the story any better, though there are some pictures and definitions of some items and devices one may not be familiar with. The main purpose of these annotations is to set one geographically and historically within the place and era that the book was written. Profusely illustrated with etchings and paintings of place names mentioned in the story one becomes immersed in the scenery and in this book particularly the Gothic feel comes to life. Historically we see the prisons of the time period, meet the Romantic poets and artists who shaped the life of the author and the mood which carried over into this novel. I really enjoy and recommend this edition, have several others in the series and would pick up any others I found, but unfortunately they are out of print at this time.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book and can't believe how differently this story has been portrayed by American culture. Aside from the sheer disbelief that everyone who has not read the book has gotten the story so WRONG, I often found myself getting wrapped up in the eloquence of Shelley's words. The way she described some of the most mundane things was simply beautiful.

      I loved the story within a story within a story. I felt it allowed us to not only see the characters as they saw themselves, but also as the respective narrator saw them. Though there were portions that I felt weren't necessary (Chapter 19 read like the most boring travel brochure ever) I appreciated most of it. Frankenstein's overall struggle and loss as a result of his "playing god" was heartbreaking.

    Book preview

    Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

    Cover: Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

    Frankenstein

    A Novel

    Mary Shelley

    CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

    Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Simon & Schuster

    TO

    WILLIAM GODWIN,

    AUTHOR OF Political Justice, Caleb Williams, &C.

    THESE VOLUMES

    ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR.

    FRANKENSTEIN: THE MOTHER OF GOTHIC HORROR

    Published in 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a model for Gothic fiction, science fiction, and all the horror novels that followed it. Weaving the Gothic elements of the supernatural, terror, anguish, and love with the Romantic values of nature and individualism, Shelley delivers a chilling tale about unchecked ambition and the consequences of disturbing the order of nature. Generations of scientists, ethicists, psychologists, feminists, and artists have been inspired and riveted by Mary Shelley’s dark story.

    Almost every science fiction writer—from Jules Verne to Gene Roddenberry—owes a debt to Shelley. She was able to see clearly the lure and the danger of technology, and her foresight laid the groundwork for countless fantastical stories that followed. Frankenstein introduces the ever-popular ideas of the mad scientist, the experiment gone awry, and the devastating effects of psychological trauma. Mr. Hyde, Dr. Moreau, and even slasher Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th films should all remember Mary Shelley on Mother’s Day.

    Frankenstein was first adapted for the stage in 1823, and since the dawn of film dozens of adaptations, sequels, and parodies have paid tribute to it. The constant reinvention of the Frankenstein story as it nears its two hundredth anniversary is a testament to its timelessness. As humankind grapples with the ethical and environmental issues related to nuclear power, fossil fuels, and genetic engineering, the novel’s warning is as relevant as it has ever been.

    In Greek legend, Prometheus stole fire from the gods for human advancement. Shelley’s modern Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein, continues to represent the destruction that scientists try to avoid as well as the genius that artists strive to achieve.

    The Life and Work of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

    Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in 1797 into the most celebrated intellectual and literary marriage of the day. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was among the most influential Enlightenment radicals, and wrote passionately and persuasively for the rights of women, most famously in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Her father, William Godwin, was a celebrated philosopher and writer who believed in man’s individual perfection and ability to reason. His best-known work, The Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness, was published in 1793.

    Young Mary never knew her mother, who died of complications from her birth. Godwin, also raising Wollstonecraft’s other daughter, Fanny Imlay, needed a mother for his girls and found one in Mary Jane Clairmont, the unmarried mother of two. Clairmont was jealous of the attention paid to her notable stepdaughter and favored her own children, making life at home difficult for young Mary, who was often whipped for impertinence and found solace reading or taking her meals at her mother’s grave. Although she received no formal education, growing up in William Godwin’s house provided ample opportunities for learning, with its well-stocked library and frequent visits from the great minds of the time. When relations between his wife and daughter became intolerable, Godwin sent Mary to live with his friends the Baxters in Scotland in 1812, where she enjoyed her first taste of domestic harmony.

    That year she briefly met the newly married Percy Bysshe Shelley, a noted young Romantic poet and ardent follower of Godwin’s philosophy. She returned to her father’s home in 1814, where Shelley was a frequent visitor. The two fell in love, and with Mary’s stepsister, Jane (later known as Claire) Clairmont, ran off to the Continent. The couple’s first child was born prematurely in 1815 and survived only a few weeks, and their second child was born in early 1816. Claire began an affair with another famous young poet, Lord Byron, and the four passed the unusually cold summer of 1816 together on the shores of Lake Geneva. They stayed by the fire talking and telling ghost stories, and Percy, Byron, and Mary decided to see who could write the most frightening tale. Mary’s tale became the basis for Frankenstein.

    Percy’s wife, Harriet, drowned herself in November 1816, and Percy and Mary married in December. Mary published Frankenstein anonymously in 1818, but since Percy had written the Preface and the book was dedicated to his mentor William Godwin, he was suspected of being the book’s author. Tragedy followed the Shelleys as their third child, Clara, died in 1818 and their second child, William, died in 1819. Mary began writing her novel Mathilda in August 1819, and gave birth to her fourth child, Percy Florence, in November. She suffered a miscarriage in June 1822, and the following month Percy drowned when his boat sank in a storm in the Gulf of Spezia, near Genoa, leaving her a widow at the age of twenty-four.

    Mary continued to write for the rest of her life. Her second novel, Valperga; or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca, found success after it was published in 1823. Other works of fiction include The Last Man (1826), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, a Romance (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner, a Novel (1837); Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal and Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France were published in 1835 and 1838, respectively. An account of her European travels with her surviving son in the 1840s was published in two volumes under the title Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 (1844). She lived with her son and his family until she died, in 1851, at the age of fifty-three.

    Historical and Literary Context of Frankenstein

    The Enlightenment

    The eighteenth century was the Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, in Europe and America. Advances in science in the 1600s gave rise to the belief in natural law and confidence in human reason, which led thinkers of the 1700s to apply a scientific approach to matters of human importance including religion, society, politics, and economics. The movement was centered in the salons of Paris, coffeehouses of England, and universities of Germany.

    Human rationality was seen to be in harmony with the universe, and belief in the importance of the individual was popular. Philosophers looked for universal truths to govern humanity and nature, and the sense of progress and perfectibility through rationality abounded. Human reason was considered the path to understanding the universe and improving the human condition, the result of which would be knowledge, freedom, and happiness.

    The scientific approach to discovery was very successful in the fields of science and mathematics and spurred the search for rules that could define all areas of human experience. Rather than trusting innate goodness or blaming original sin for people’s behavior, Enlightenment thinkers crafted new theories about heredity and psychology. Whereas once the political state was viewed as a representation of divine order, new political thinkers began touting the rights of individuals and arguing for establishment of democracies.

    Revolution: American, French, and Industrial

    The revolutionary political theories born in Europe had a revolutionary impact in the New World. By the mid-1700s, after more than a century of imperialist rule, American colonists had developed customs and values that differed from English ways. Rather than relaxing its influence and accommodating those differences, the English tightened control by passing laws demanding tax revenue in the colonies without offering the colonials a voice in Parliament to represent their interests. To the colonial political leaders, this taxation without representation amounted to tyranny. The war for American independence broke out in 1775 and had almost reached a stalemate when assistance from France arrived in 1777. The fighting lasted four more years before, with the help of the French navy, the war ended with the British surrender at Yorktown. The Treaty of Paris recognized the United States of America in 1783, a country founded on the principles of liberty and democracy.

    The success of the young democracy in America fired the imaginations of progressives in France who were eager to establish a representative government at home. France’s privileged classes—the clergy and the nobility—governed the country, while the productive class—the third estate—was heavily taxed to foot the bill. Outdated farming methods created food shortages, while extravagances in the court of King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, sparked outrage. The king was forced to order a general election of popular representatives who met in 1789 to present him with their complaints; instead, they declared themselves to be the National Assembly and vowed not to adjourn until a constitution had been written. Violence erupted as frustrated peasants lashed out at the ruling classes, forcing the nobility to abolish the feudal system and accept the Declaration of the Rights of Man. By 1791 a limited constitutional monarchy was created, but the Revolution was far from over. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was the rallying cry as the National Assembly suspended the monarchy and called for new elections to create a convention to draw up a new constitution. In 1792 the new Legislative Assembly abolished the monarchy and arrested, convicted, and executed the king for treason. Internal power struggles led to the creation not of a democracy but of a military dictatorship that tried to maintain order by executing everyone it considered a threat. In the span of about a year, from 1793 to 1794, thousands, including the queen, lost their heads to the guillotine in a period known as the Reign of Terror.

    Turmoil was not contained within the country’s borders, however. France had declared war on Austria in 1792 and was busy in Europe fighting governments sympathetic to the deposed monarchy. The year 1795 saw another new constitution in France, followed in 1797 by another coup. In 1799, General Napoleon Bonaparte returned home from a military campaign in Egypt, seized control of France, and established the Consulate. Within a decade he had conquered Europe from Spain to the border of Russia for France, but the empire was short-lived. He went into exile in 1814 after losses at the hands of Britain, Prussia, and Spain, and returned only to be definitively defeated at Waterloo in 1815.

    Another revolution, social and technological rather than political, was also under way at the turn of the nineteenth century. Mechanical innovations shifted the basis of England’s economy from agriculture to industry between 1750 and 1850. The development of steam power and a boom in the cotton textiles industry caused a population shift from rural to urban areas. New steam-powered railroads and ships broadened the market for England’s output. France’s Industrial Revolution took off in the 1830s, followed by Germany’s in the 1850s and the United States’ after the Civil War.

    Laborers were more at the mercy of their employers than ever before, and working conditions in factories and mills were often brutal. Children and parents alike worked long hours six days a week in dangerous conditions for very low wages. It was clear that the economic philosophy of laissez-faire capitalism—the belief that market pressures alone would resolve production issues in capitalist economies—would not protect workers. Karl Marx and Frederich Engels published their Communist Manifesto as a solution to the tense relationship between labor and capital. They called for the more equitable distribution of the vast wealth being generated in the newly industrialized world. Their ideas, however, did not produce much political change until the early twentieth century. Throughout the nineteenth century, most of the Western world struggled to adjust to the impact of industrialization.

    The Romantic Movement

    Imbued with revolutionary spirit, the Romantic movement lasted from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. It was a rejection of the order, calm, and rationalism of the Enlightenment in favor of innovation and emotional expression. Although disappointed that the French Revolution was overshadowed by the horrors of the Reign of Terror and the egomania of Emperor Bonaparte, intellectuals of the day lauded the ideals of the Revolution and were fascinated by the possibility of radical social reformation. They were optimistic that humankind could create its own utopia, but the reality of events around them made them pessimistic about the darker side of human nature.

    Romantic art is marked by an appreciation of the beauty of nature, the importance of self-examination, and the value of the creative spirit. Nationalism, folk culture, the exotic, and the supernatural were also topics of interest. To the Romantic artist, inspiration, intuition, and imagination were seen as divine sparks that pointed to Truth. The subjects of the literature of the Romantic movement focused on the quest for beauty; the faraway, the long-ago, and the lurid; escapism from contemporary problems; and nature as a source of knowledge, refuge, and divinity. To explore these subjects, Romantic writers stressed emotion and subjectivity, and often asked their readers to suspend their disbelief.

    Romanticism valued individual voices, including those of women and common people. They tended to idealize the pastoral lives of farmers, shepherds, milkmaids, and other rustic people, figures who seemed to them to belong to a simpler, more wholesome, less cynical time when humankind lived in harmony with nature. The works of poet William Wordsworth—especially his Lyrical Ballads (1798)—provide good examples of this idealization. The Romantic sensibility also allowed women authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and the Bronte sisters to flourish.

    Gothic Literature

    The Romantic literature preoccupied with mystery, horror, and the supernatural is known as Gothic. The name is a reference to the barbaric Gothic tribes of the Middle Ages, or to medieval times in general with its castles, knights, and adventure. Gothic novels tended to feature brooding tones, remote settings, and mysterious events. The characters’ inner emotional lives receive a lot of attention, as does the struggle between good and evil. The style took its name from Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story, the first book identified as belonging to the genre. Published in 1764, it is set in a medieval society and features plenty of supernatural happenings. English writers Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, and Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe in the United States, are regarded as masters of the form. Among them, Shelley is known for using a contemporary setting and modern issues to illustrate the weird and terrible to evoke the reader’s fear of the darkness in human nature.

    CHRONOLOGY OF MARY SHELLEY’S LIFE AND WORK

    1797: William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft marry on March 29. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is born on August 30. Mary Wollstonecraft dies on September 10.

    1801: William Godwin and Mary Jane Clairmont marry on December 21.

    1808: Mary Godwin anonymously publishes her parody, Mounseer Nongtongpaw, with the Juvenile Library.

    1812: Mary meets Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife, Harriet, at Mary’s home in November.

    1814: Mary, her stepsister, Jane Clairmont, and Percy spend the summer traveling in Europe.

    1815: Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley’s first child, a daughter, is born prematurely in February and dies in March.

    1816: Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley’s son William is born in January. They travel to Switzerland to meet noted poet Lord Byron, and Mary begins work on Frankenstein. Mary’s half-sister commits suicide in October. Percy’s wife, Harriet, commits suicide in November. Percy and Mary are married in December.

    1817: Mary and Percy’s daughter Clara is born in September. Mary and Percy publish their co-written History of a Six Weeks’ Tour in November.

    1818: Frankenstein published. Clara dies in September.

    1819: William Shelley dies in June. Mary begins work on Mathilda in August. Mary and Percy’s son Percy Florence is born in Florence in November.

    1820: Mary writes mythological dramas Prosperine and Midas.

    1822: Percy Shelley drowns in a shipwreck near Genoa in July.

    1823: Mary Shelley’s novel Valperga; or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca is published in February. She returns to England in August.

    1826: Mary publishes The Last Man in February.

    1830: Mary publishes The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, a Romance in May.

    1831: Mary publishes a revised edition of Frankenstein.

    1835: Mary publishes Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, vol. I, in February, and Lodore in April.

    1836: Mary’s father, William Godwin, dies in April.

    1837: Mary publishes Falkner, a Novel in February.

    1838: Mary publishes Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France, vol. II, in August.

    1851: Mary dies on February 1.

    HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF FRANKENSTEIN

    1750s: Benjamin Franklin establishes the electrical nature of lightning through experiments using kites.

    1764: James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny for textile manufacture. Horace Walpole publishes The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story.

    1769: James Watt patents his steam engine.

    1771: Richard Arkwright produces the first spinning mill for cotton thread.

    1774: Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes The Sorrows of Young Werther.

    1776: The American Declaration of Independence is signed in July. Adam Smith publishes An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

    1777: Antoine Laurent Lavoisier establishes the oxygen and nitrogen basis of air.

    1781: Immanuel Kant publishes the Critique of Pure Reason.

    1785: James Watt and Matthew Boulton install a steam engine in an English cotton factory.

    1789: The storming of the Bastille begins the French Revolution.

    1791: Thomas Paine publishes The Rights of Man, part I. Luigi Galvani publishes his paper on his theory of animal electricity.

    1792: Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

    1793: Reign of Terror begins in Paris.

    1794: Robespierre is executed, ending the Reign of Terror.

    1797: Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes Kubla Khan and the first version of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

    1800: Alessandro Volta develops the electric battery.

    1806: The first steam-driven textile mill opens in Manchester, England.

    1813: Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice. Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes Queen Mab.

    1814: The British navy develops the first steam-driven warship. George Stephenson invents the steam locomotive.

    1818: James Blundell, a London surgeon, performs the first successful transfusion of human blood.

    1825: The first railroad starts operation in England.

    1832: England’s Parliament outlaws body-snatching for medical research.

    1837: Samuel F. B. Morse makes a public demonstration of the electric telegraph in New York.

    1840: Charles Darwin publishes Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle.

    1847: Charlotte Bronte publishes Jane Eyre. Emily Bronte publishes Wuthering Heights. William Makepeace Thackeray publishes Vanity Fair.

    1848: The first Women’s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

    FRANKENSTEIN; OR, THE MODERN PROMETHEUS

    Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?——

    PARADISE LOST.

    PREFACE¹

    THE EVENT on which this fiction is founded has been supposed, by Dr. Darwin,²

    and some of the physiological writers of Germany, as not of impossible occurrence. I shall not be supposed as according the remotest degree of serious faith to such an imagination; yet, in assuming it as the basis of a work of fancy, I have not considered myself as merely weaving a series of supernatural terrors. The event on which the interest of the story depends is exempt from the disadvantages of a mere tale of spectres or enchantment. It was recommended by the novelty of the situations which it developes; and, however impossible as a physical fact, affords a point of view to the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield.

    I have thus endeavoured to preserve the truth of the elementary principles of human nature, while I have not scrupled to innovate upon their combinations. The Iliad, the tragic poetry of Greece,—Shakespeare, in the Tempest and Midsummer Night’s Dream,—and most especially Milton, in Paradise Lost, conform to this rule; and the most humble novelist, who seeks to confer or receive amusement from his labours, may, without presumption, apply to prose fiction a licence, or rather a rule, from the adoption of which so many exquisite combinations of human feeling have resulted in the highest specimens of poetry.

    The circumstance on which my story rests was suggested in casual conversation.³

    It was commenced, partly as a source of amusement, and partly as an expedient for exercising any untried resources of mind. Other motives were mingled with these, as the work proceeded. I am by no means indifferent to the manner in which whatever moral tendencies exist in the sentiments or characters it contains shall affect the reader; yet my chief concern in this respect has been limited to the avoiding the enervating effects of the novels of the present day,⁴

    and to the exhibition of the amiableness of domestic affection, and the excellence of universal virtue. The opinions which naturally spring from the character and situation of the hero are by no means to be conceived as existing always in my own conviction; nor is any inference justly to be drawn from the following pages as prejudicing any philosophical doctrine of whatever kind.

    It is a subject also of additional interest to the author, that this story was begun in the majestic region where the scene is principally laid, and in society which cannot cease to be regretted. I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we crowded around a blazing wood fire, and occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts, which happened to fall into our hands. These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation. Two other friends (a tale from the pen of one of whom would be far more acceptable to the public than any thing I can ever hope to produce) and myself agreed to write each a story, founded on some supernatural occurrence.

    The weather, however, suddenly became serene; and my two friends left me on a journey among the Alps, and lost, in the magnificent scenes which they present, all memory of their ghostly visions. The following tale is the only one which has been completed.

    VOLUME I

    LETTER I

    To Mrs. Saville, England

    St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17—.

    You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I arrived here yesterday; and my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare, and increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking.

    I am already far north of London; and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh,¹

    I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves, and fills me with delight. Do you understand this feeling? This breeze, which has travelled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my day dreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible; its broad disk just skirting the horizon, and diffusing a perpetual splendour. There—for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators—there snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Its productions and features may be without example, as the phænomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death, and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. But, supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.

    These reflections have dispelled the agitation with which I began my letter, and I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm²

    which elevates me to heaven; for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose,—a point on which the soul may fix its

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1