Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Number of Pages: 240
Publisher: Intervisual Books
Date of Original Publication: 1818
ISBN #: 1-61524-349-6

Hey guys back for February :)

The first book for this month that I’ll give to you as a review unfortunately was one I did not like. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein may be a hit classic and the starter of the entire Science Fiction genre but I just could not get into this one.

I read this my sophomore year in High School and now had to read it again for my Sci Fi and Literature course in college and I still don’t like it. I appreciate it more then I did back then but I still found the novel to be overall boring and very anti climatic.

The story focus’s on Victor Frankenstein, a young, emotionally unstable man who’s born into wealth and very intelligent. Victor pursues his passion for the sciences and pours himself into creating life, in which he succeeds by creating an alien known as The Creation. The Creation is described as being quite large with yellowish skin, and not very handsome as he is made by several various organs and skin patches in which Frankenstein was able to fine in morgues and other places. 

This is a story within a story within a story. The creation’s story is told through the means of Victor Frankenstein and Victor’s story is being told by a ship captain by the name of Walton who tells Victor’s story after meeting him and believing that Victor is the man he’s been looking for as a friend for years. Walton brings out many attributes of Victor that emphasize his character, a major characteristic being: his selfishness. He wants a friend but by the end of the novel he has lost so many friends that he refuses to befriend Walton for fear of being hurt again.

Frankenstein becomes horrified by the creature he has created and despises him from the instant he becomes alive. The Creature learns language and emotions through his own means and decides that he would like a companion one day as he has been rejected by every standard human he has faced with. Frankenstein disagrees with this idea afraid that creating another horrible “monster” for him will only create more problems within the human race.

I know this was her first book and she was only the age of 19 but I felt like the plot line was just not entertaining. Slow driving. Not too much in character development apart from Victor being very emotional and the Creature being characterized as intelligent. Nearly everyone dies in the novel left and right, I felt like there was no really driving action in the end.

I would rate this novel at a 2 out of 5 for creativity but not a captivating plot line.

My next post will be on H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds.Thank you for reading. If you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns for me, let me know, or just simply want to talk to me. I will do book requests. You can send me a message to me on here or E-Mail me at: TeamBellisle@yahoo.com

I check my yahoo account more often then Blogger however.

~TJ