Do you want to witness the birth of the modern horror story? Do you want to go back to the gothic original, the one that started it all? Then you need to read Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s chilling tale of scientific hubris and inhumanity.
But after more than 200 years since it was written, is Frankenstein still scary? And what can it tell us about our world today?
| Language | English |
| Release Date | May 2, 2017 |
| Genre | literature |
| Author | Mary Shelley |
| File Size | 1358 KB |
| Rating | (4.72) |
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an English gothic novel about Victor Frankenstein. As a boy, he was obsessed with the writing of alchemists and other practitioners of the occult arts. But once he goes away to study science at university, he finds these ideas are rejected.
But his mother’s early death has created an obsession in him: to overcome mortality. He unites the aims of alchemy with the science of his day — leading him to bring to life “the Creature.” But Victor’s creation is not at all what he imagined.
The story is told through documents, giving us insight into multiple characters and broadening the scope all while creating a non-linear narrative. Even in the 21st century, it feels daring and inventive. After all this time, it is still an incredible novel.
That anyone could have written it at any time is a wonder. But Shelley began writing it at only 18, and it all began under very gothic circumstances. During the “Year Without a Summer” (1816, when an eruption at Mount Tambora trapped the world in a volcanic winter), a young Mary traveled with her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley to Lord Byron’s villa in Switzerland.
There, they read ghost stories by a fire. Inspired, Byron suggested the three of them each try their hand at one.
That night, Shelley couldn’t sleep, but she was overcome by horrific visions — images that would go on to become the basis for Frankenstein.
Spooky stuff.
Frankenstein deals with many themes:
Those heavy themes do not slow down the story. Instead, they fuel it with palpable stakes and emotion. Rather than getting bogged down in the heaviness of it all, Frankenstein soars.
What’s more, they make it as relevant today as ever. As we are inundated with scientific marvels while trying to rebalance our relationship to the natural world, we are living in the times of Frankenstein.
While Frankenstein has done so much for fiction writing in general and the horror novel in particular, is it still a good read?
Absolutely.
Frankenstein is written in captivating prose. It’s filled with eerie scenery, pathos, dark and twisted obsessions, overwraught melodrama, violence, terror, the occult, and sci-fi wizardry. Seriously, what more could you want from a novel?
Mary Shelley is one of the true masters of the written word. And this gothic classic is her magnum opus. Find it, wait for a dark and stormy night, and read it!
