To tell you what this book is about is to tell you what I think it is about. But this book can be interpreted in many ways, and it actually has a lot more meaning in it than your average book nowadays, not to say that this book was written nowadays.



First off, let me tell you that you cannot get the meaning this book is trying to convey by watching any of the movies, even the more recent version Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. No, you must read this book in order to get it. The book is far different from the movies. For instance, there was no Igor, and there was no Frankenstein's castle, and there was no electric jolts and cries of "it's alive!" The book becomes terror the instant the creature opens its eyes. Nay, the monster is not evil at first, Victor Frankenstein is merely scared and he feels that he must flee from the sight of his own creation. The monter gradually becomes more and more evil as the story goes on.



If you want to know what I think, and what a lot of other people think this book is about, it is about what it is to be human. I cannot simply explain what Shelley is trying to say, it must be read, and then you will come up with your own interpretation. If you do read this, pay special attention as to why Victor Frankenstein does not create a female monster as a partner for the male monster. Also pay attention as to why the monster grieves at the end of the novel. If you ponder these, you may find what Shelley is saying.

The writing style is something you cannot find in modern writing. Only in classical novels do you see such wording.

It was pretty slow compared to what we read nowadays, but it is still a classical read.

Mary Shelley was born in 1797. She was English and she wrote Frankenstein when she was only nineteen. It is her most famous work, but she wrote other novels as well. She died in 1851.

It is a classic novel that I think everyone should eventually read. Do not merely watch the movie and think that "I've got it." You cannot get it by watching the movie, you have to read it.

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Created Dec 26, 2002 at 5:40pm • Submit your own review...