- Title: Frankenstein
- Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Genre: Classic fiction
- Score: 3 out of 5
- No. 171 on the Big Read Bonanza
- Amazon link
I’ve not read this before, and I was quite surprised by the time I got to the end. Although I hadn’t expected this to be about a jolly green giant with a bolt through his neck, I wasn’t really prepared for how depressing the book is. From the start we are thrust into the icy world of a pole expedition, and then through letters to a sister detailing the story told to the brother by a scientist plucked from the wilderness (friend of a friend!) we learn about Frankenstein and his monster.
Although there are some great moral questions brought up here, and it gives you plenty to think about, it really is so very sombre and depressing, all very unfair, that by the time I got to the end, I just wanted to forget about it and move on. It doesn’t really make sense to me, because I can’t fathom that Frankenstein, as a scientist, abandoned the project the minute it worked, lost the project and then didn’t care or mention a word about it for two years.
Considering that’s the very basis of the book, it made the rest quite hard for me to get on board with. However, it was interesting enough, and another one ticked off the reading list.
Thinking of this book in comparison to Dr. Jekle and Mr Hyde was interesting. This book was published over 50 years earlier. And I think the idea of Novels was really only just evolving. Feels to me like it’s a great idea but not a great novel, where as J&H is both? Or is that too harsh on Frankenstein?