Frankenstein

Last November, I downloaded Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for free from Barnes & Noble. Having never read the book, I chose the version deemed "unabridged and updated for modern readers." 

Appropriately for Halloween, my friend Lisa was reading it, and I was intrigued. 

Little did I know how my fascination would grow. I was about to take a deep dive, head first, down a Frankenstein rabbit hole.

The story was not at all what I expected when I finally began reading it this spring. The writing style is challenging as it is full of over the top Victorian sentiment, florid descriptions, and meandering sentences. I gave it a five-star review, with the following write-up on Goodreads, because of its formidable reputation. 

A classic piece of rambling, melodramatic, Gothic literature, so far removed from the Halloween-esque version of Frankenstein we’ve come to know. A ghost story indeed, about humanity's doomed attempts to play God.

I was very close to finishing the book when I went to visit Meredith and Andrew in Maine on Memorial Day weekend this year. It turned out to be rainy and cold, perfect for streaming two Frankenstein movies on Netflix. Our creature-double-feature began with Guillermo del Toro’s spectacular 2025 interpretation starring the new teen heartthrob Jacob Elordi as the monster. I loved it. 

[Later I was able to stream Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the 1994 film featuring Robert DeNiro, Kenneth Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tom Hulce, and I was not enamored by it at all, despite its obvious star power. Also, I still can't believe I've yet to view the Mel Brook's comedy Young Frankenstein, a spoof that brilliantly combines the Gothic horror and "monster mash" elements of the story.]

"I was working in the lab late one night

When my eyes beheld an eerie sight

For my monster, from his slab, began to rise

And suddenly, to my surprise . . ."

There are so many interpretations of this legendary tale, it makes my head spin. As I probed further, my desire to dissect all things Frankenstein started bordering on obsessive :) I had conversations with my son-in-law who had studied the book extensively in literature classes in college. Andrew recalled examining the themes of free will, grief, isolation, and hubris. Somehow I was never interested in stories about monsters and super heroes in school so I completely missed out learning about the rich literary and cultural significance of this genre. 

I was struck by how throughout the story, Victor Frankenstein refers to his creature by a variety of vile terms — dæmon, wretch, villain, devil, fiend — leaving the reader to ponder: "Who is the real monster in the tragic narrative?" The scientist's abandonment of his responsibility to nurture and educate his creation sets in motion the tragic trajectory of the plot. Caution, compassion, and care are integral components for humankind when asserting its dominance over the environment. A lesson just as important today as it was historically.

In addition, there is so much to unpack surrounding Mary Shelley’s esoteric life, the backstory of how and where the idea for Frankenstein was conceived, and the book's publishing history. First published anonymously in 1918 when the author was only 20 years old, it was speculated at the time that it was actually written by her fiancé, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. After his untimely death in 1822 at the age of 29, Mary republished a version she had revised. This reworking, published in 1831, addressed some of the criticism the original had received. In an introduction to the second edition, Mary challenged questions of authorship head-on. “It is not singular that, as the daughter of two persons of distinguished literary celebrity, I should very early in life have thought of writing…” 

Raised by parents who believed in free love and other scandalous ideas for the times, Mary and her half-siblings endured tumultuous upbringings. Her mother, the famous feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, died only 11 days after giving birth to her daughter. Her father, William Godwin, a political philosopher and novelist known for his anarchist viewpoints, remarried when she was four years old. Mary's youth was not only marred by her own mother's early death but by a troubled relationship with her stepmother. Her romance with Percy Shelley, who was already married, was also a complicated affair. His first wife eventually committed suicide leaving behind two of the poet's children and being pregnant with a third. Only one of Mary and Percy Shelley's four children lived to adulthood, and Mary lost her own life to a brain tumor at age 53 in 1851. Grief and conflict seemed to follow her everywhere. 

Famously, it was in 1816 in Geneva, Switzerland that the concept of Frankenstein came to life. Mary and Percy Shelley, along with their infant son William, and Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont were neighboring next-door to Villa Diodati, a mansion rented by renowned poet and man-about-town, Lord Byron and his personal physician, John Polidori. Trapped indoors during what came to be known later as The Year Without Summer, the group of five adults (Claire is often completely left out of the assemblage) socialized together extensively. One pastime included reading aloud volumes of German ghost stories, and spirited discussions centered on current events including medical advancements like reanimation. At one point, Byron challenged each guest to write their own ghost story. In her own words, Mary described her insecurity about being in the company of the esteemed male writers, and how one night a vivid waking dream led to her crafting the plot of her famous tale.

“I busied myself to think of a story—a story to rival those which had excited us to this task. One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.“

Damn, she succeeded! Neither of the accomplished male poets produced anything of significance, but unbelievably, Polidori who was ruthlessly chastised by Byron and Shelley for his youth and literary inexperience, wrote The Vampyre (1819) and is credited with inventing the vampire genre. His life ended tragically two years later at age 25 (some say by suicide).

My favorite pleasant surprise during my journey into the bowels of Frankenstein has been the second movie screened during the Memorial Day weekend mini-film-festival in Maine—Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2026, The Bride! starring Jessie Buckley (of Hamnet) and Christian Bale. 

What a wild ride it is with so many references to earlier renditions of the story as well as a nod to the 1930’s gangster culture of Bonnie & Clyde. I’ll end with this line that I love from a monologue by a disturbed and agitated Mary Shelley as the movie begins. She’s describing her compulsion to tell another story, perhaps about a bride…for her monstrous creation.

“Darlings, something is cracking. The words are beginning to come. Is it a ghost story? A horror story? Or most frightening of all, a love story?” 

Stay tuned for my next excursion into the world of Frankenstein...         

I'm currently reading Love & Other Monsters by Emily Franklin, a novel that explores the complex dynamics in Geneva during The Year Without Summer, including relationships between Mary Shelley and her sister Claire Clairmont, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, as well as between Claire, Byron, and Polidori!