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BOOKS
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Frankenstein
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By Mary Shelley, review by Bruce Meyer
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Frankenstein
By Mary Shelley, review by Bruce Meyer
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An interesting aspect of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is that it has captured such a vast range of interpretations. Written as a ghost story yet framed as an Arctic travel narrative, it raises some key questions about the nature of science, the relationship between God and Man, and the essential human question of responsibility.
Subtitled The Modern Prometheus when it was published in 1818, Shelley examines the issue not only of how one acquires knowledge but also of what one does with it. Her protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, is like a young child who is suddenly startled by a machine that comes to life in his hands — and who turns his back on the mechanism he has set in motion. As was the case with the mythical ancient who stole fire from the gods, Victor's dilemma is that of a sorcerer's apprentice who cannot control what he has set in motion: and the novel becomes a study in relationships and power.
As a text, Frankenstein has been called "visionary," a morning star of such 20th-century realities as the invention of nuclear arms, the existential doubts about the nature of God, and the Darwinian spirit of scientific inquiry. But as a novel, it is a thrilling read, the mother of the modern horror genre, one of the first forays into science fiction, and a haunting statement on the nature of the imagination and the role literature plays in shaping our most terrifying thoughts.
*See also Chapter 16 of Bruce Meyer's national bestseller, The Golden Thread: A Reader's Journey Through the Great Books, (Harper Perennial, 2000.)
Click on these links to read the complete text of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein online.
http://www.literature.org/authors/shelley-mary/frankenstein
Site from Brandeis University devoted to Mary Shelley
http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/shelleybio.html
Site for Georgetown University devoted to Mary Shelley and the study of British Romantic literature
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/english016/franken/franken.htm
Site from the University of Calgary devoted to the study of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein
http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/Others/CIH/WritingLives/WLMSlinks.html
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