Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley's classic work, published when she was just twenty years old, tells the tale of eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a terrifying creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Inspired after a competition between Shelley, her husband Percy, Lord Byron and John Polidori to see who could write the best horror story, Frankenstein is in part a gothic novel and considered by some as one of the first forays into science fiction. The story takes place in the 18th century and has led to numerous spin-off works featuring 'Frankenstein's monster.'

Frankenstein

studie/werk zouden niet mogen interferen met je privéleven, dat is iets dat sinds 1800 gezegd maar niet toegepast wordt zo te zien

blue

Een menselijk wezen in perfect evenwicht behoort altijd een kalme, vredige geest te bewaren en nimmer toe te staan dat deze rust verstoord wordt door hartstocht of voorbijgaande begeerten. Ik geloof niet dat de wetenschap op deze regel een uitzondering mag vormen. Wanneer de studie, waaraan je jezelf geeft, geneigd is je genegenheid voor mensen te doen afnemen en je behagen in die simpele genoegens, waarin geen bijmengsels bestaan, te vernietigen, dan is die studie beslist onwettig, dat wil zeggen ongeschikt voor de menselijke geest. Als men zich altijd aan die regel hield; als geen mens ooit toestond dat de rust van zijn huiselijke genegenheid verstoord werd door wélk verlangen ook, dan zou Griekenland nooit onderworpen zijn; Caesar zou zijn land gespaard hebben; Amerika zou geleidelijker ontdekt zijn; en de keizerrijken Mexico en Peru zouden niet verwoest zijn.

Alleen degenen die de verlokkingen der wetenschap gevoeld hebben kunnen de kracht daarvan begrijpen. Bij iedere andere studie kun je niet verder komen dan alle anderen die je zijn voorgegaan, en er valt ook niets méér te weten; maar bij scheikundige onderzoekingen is er voortdurend stof voor ontdekkingen en verbazing.

Nica

You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself. I look on the hands which executed the deed; I think on the heart in which the imagination of it was conceived, and long for the moment when these hands will meet my eyes, when that imagination will haunt my thoughts no more.

The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.

I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture; but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested, yet could not disobey.

Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives. A sister or a brother can never, unless indeed such symptoms have been shown early, suspect the other of fraud or false dealing, when another friend, however strongly he may be attached, may, in spite of himself, be contemplated with suspicion.

Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated.

It is well for the unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace. The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief.

"Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate; but the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity. Rely, therefore, on your hopes; and if these friends are good and amiable, do not despair."

They consisted of Paradise Lost, a volume of Plutarch's Lives, and the Sorrows of Werter.

'Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feeling; but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death - a state which I feared yet did not understand.'

Was man indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle, and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike. To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm. For a long time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased, and I turned away with disgust and loathing.

'Be not equitable to every other, and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy with no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.'

Have I not suffered enough that you seek to increse my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.

'All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind.'

Why does man boast of sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only renders them more necessary beings. If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows, and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.

We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep. We rise; one wondering thought pollutes the day. We feel, conceive, or reason; laugh or weep, Embrace found woe, or cast our cares away; It is the same: for be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free. Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but mutability!

The sight in awful and majestic in nature had indeed always the effect of solemnising my mind, and causing me to forget the passing cares of life.

When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness? I feel as if I were walking on the edge of a precipice, towards which thousands are crowding, and endeavouring to plunge me into the abyss.

Before, I looked upon the accounts of vice and injustice, that I read in books or heard from others, as tales of ancient days, or imaginary evils; at least they were remote, and more familiar to reason than to the imagination; but now misery has come home, and men appear to me as monsters thirsting for each other's blood. Yet I am certainly unjust.

Remorse extinguished every hope. I had been the author of unalterable evils; and I lived in daily fear, lest the monster whom I created should perpetrate some new wickedness.

Sometimes, with my sails set, I was carried by the wind; and sometimes, after rowing into the middle of the lake, I left the boat to pursue its own course, and gave way to my own miserable reflections. I was often tempted, when all was at peace around me, and I the only unquiet thing that wandered restless in a scene so beautiful and heavenly - If I except some bat, or the frogs, whose harsh and interrupted croaking was heard only when I approached the shore - often, I say, I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities for ever.

I had begun life with benevolent intentions, and thirsted for the moment when I should put them in practice, and make myself useful to my fellow-beings. Now all was blasted: instead of that serenity and conscience, which allowed me to look back upon the past with self-satisfaction, and from thence to gather promise of new hopes, I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe.

Luca Stromann

And now, behold, with your first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink away, and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm firesides. Why that requires not this preparation; ye need not have come thus far, and dragged your captain to the shame of a defeat, merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh! be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered, and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.

Amidst the wilds of Tartary and Russia, although he still evaded me, I have ever followed in his track. Sometimes the peasants, scared by this horrid apparition, informed me of his path; sometimes he himself, who feared that if I lost all trace of him I should despair and die, left some mark to guide me.

The earliest example of science fiction, a truly thought provoking book.

Lexi 

Het verhaal had een trage tempo, wat me niet erg beviel. Bovendien waren er kapot veel typos, wat zeer vervelend is. Het schrijfstijl was een enorme hinder om me in het verhaal te laten gaan, maar dat was verwacht aangezien dit boek 200 jaar geleden geschreven is. Ik had iets duisterder verwacht, en ik ben niet bepaald onder de indruk van dit boek, maar ik ben toch blij dat ik het heb gelezen aangezien het een klassiek boek is binnen de genre. Vooral in het begin, maar ook daarna, voelde ik mee voor het 'monster' van Frankenstein, die door zijn uiterlijk alléén als monster werd beschouwd.  

Voordat hij nog de betekenis van kwaad en goed kon leren werd hij als kwaad beschouwd en werd hij door zijn schepper afgewezen. Mary Shelly is een slimme vrouw, ze haalde meermaals naar de hypocrysie van de mens en de tekortkomingen van de maatschappij (haar commentaar over hoe werk je geest niet mag martelen; haar commentaar over de vrienden van Justine die haar in de steek lieten; nu met het monster van Frankenstein dat constant wordt veroordeeld, zelfs door degene die hem heeft gemaakt). Er waren ook tijdsperiode-eigen racisme en islamofobie aanwezig. Van dit boek heb ik niet genoten, maar het zet wel aan het denken. Wat maakt van iemand een monster? Wat drijft de mens tot zekere acties? Wat doet het met jou als je ouders je op jonge leeftijd in de steek laten? En verantwoordt trauma kwaadaardige acties? 

Het verhaal had een trage tempo, wat me niet erg beviel. Bovendien waren er kapot veel typos, wat zeer vervelend is. Het schrijfstijl was een enorme hinder om me in het verhaal te laten gaan, maar dat was verwacht aangezien dit boek 200 jaar geleden geschreven is. Ik had iets duisterder verwacht, en ik ben niet bepaald onder de indruk van dit boek, maar ik ben toch blij dat ik het heb gelezen aangezien het een klassiek boek is binnen de genre. Vooral in het begin, maar ook daarna, voelde ik mee voor het 'monster' van Frankenstein, die door zijn uiterlijk alléén als monster werd beschouwd.  

Voordat hij nog de betekenis van kwaad en goed kon leren werd hij als kwaad beschouwd en werd hij door zijn schepper afgewezen. Mary Shelly is een slimme vrouw, ze haalde meermaals naar de hypocrysie van de mens en de tekortkomingen van de maatschappij (haar commentaar over hoe werk je geest niet mag martelen; haar commentaar over de vrienden van Justine die haar in de steek lieten; nu met het monster van Frankenstein dat constant wordt veroordeeld, zelfs door degene die hem heeft gemaakt). Er waren ook tijdsperiode-eigen racisme en islamofobie aanwezig. Van dit boek heb ik niet genoten, maar het zet wel aan het denken. Wat maakt van iemand een monster? Wat drijft de mens tot zekere acties? Wat doet het met jou als je ouders je op jonge leeftijd in de steek laten? En verantwoordt trauma kwaadaardige acties? 

This was a fun book to read. A bit slow at times, but I found myself so emotionally invested in Frankenstein’s unnamed creation who parallels that of Genesis’ Adam. The horror lies in Victor’s passionate love and destructive desecration of nature as he toys with life and death using natural philosophy and modern science. The common misconception that Frankenstein was the monster in this story doesn’t actually seem too far off when he brings his creation to life and turns a blind eye to the heinous acts they cause. It’s his own ineptness and cowardice that causes the horrors that occur in the story. This monstrous creature surely isn’t blameless, but he becomes embittered and enraged from being left to wander the world alone and learn basic survival skills without a companion willing to treat him as any other human. 

It’s not a wonder why this 1818 novel stands the test of time today. Frankenstein’s experimentation echoes the threat of the ambition of AI development and endless debates over its looming unchecked power. The feeling of “otherness” has yet to be unfelt today when tensions against those of different races, cultures, sexualities, and gender identities are perhaps even more violent these days. And most prominent of all may be the idea that monsters aren’t born, they are created. We all have the potential to become one, and we all strive for connection in the hopes that it’ll save us.

joana ashley

This was a fun book to read. A bit slow at times, but I found myself so emotionally invested in Frankenstein’s unnamed creation who parallels that of Genesis’ Adam. The horror lies in Victor’s passionate love and destructive desecration of nature as he toys with life and death using natural philosophy and modern science. The common misconception that Frankenstein was the monster in this story doesn’t actually seem too far off when he brings his creation to life and turns a blind eye to the heinous acts they cause. It’s his own ineptness and cowardice that causes the horrors that occur in the story. This monstrous creature surely isn’t blameless, but he becomes embittered and enraged from being left to wander the world alone and learn basic survival skills without a companion willing to treat him as any other human. 

It’s not a wonder why this 1818 novel stands the test of time today. Frankenstein’s experimentation echoes the threat of the ambition of AI development and endless debates over its looming unchecked power. The feeling of “otherness” has yet to be unfelt today when tensions against those of different races, cultures, sexualities, and gender identities are perhaps even more violent these days. And most prominent of all may be the idea that monsters aren’t born, they are created. We all have the potential to become one, and we all strive for connection in the hopes that it’ll save us.

Mary Shelley's novella is an absolute master piece, commenting on the idea of alienation, in my opinion. She wrote the monster of frankenstein as a character who forces empathy from you so much. My heart felt for such a monster, a being forced into the world by a mere human who couldn't stand what his hands had made. I couldn't imagine how it feels for the monster, and the way he is abandoned time and time again, and is forced to practically raise himself, teach hismelf how to eat, talk, read, smile, walk and think. It broke my heart and I felt so upset. The emotions of the monster are almost much like an infant; so provocative and so clear. They're painted out so clearly without any hiding. This book was great to read, not at all difficult, although if you lose focus you might lose out on some of the most signficant parts of the plot. It doesn't have any difficult vocab, so give it a try. 

surtified™

More than 200 years after it was first published, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has stood the test of time as a gothic masterpiece--a classic work of horror that blurs the line between man and monster. "If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear." For centuries, the story of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created has held readers spellbound. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting dread. On a more profound level, it illuminates the triumph and tragedy of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a creature tortured by the solitude of a world in which he does not belong. A novel of almost hallucinatory intensity, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination. With an Introduction by Douglas Clegg And an Afterword by Harold Bloom

I read this because I have watched so many Frankenstein reboots that I really wanted to read the original. 

This just wasn't what I was expecting. I love flowery prose, but this felt long, drawn out, and unnecessary. While the language was easy enough to follow, it wasn't an easy read for me.

I just really didn't like it very much. I will always recommend giving classics a try, but this wasn't for me.

Alex Landau

I read this because I have watched so many Frankenstein reboots that I really wanted to read the original. 

This just wasn't what I was expecting. I love flowery prose, but this felt long, drawn out, and unnecessary. While the language was easy enough to follow, it wasn't an easy read for me.

I just really didn't like it very much. I will always recommend giving classics a try, but this wasn't for me.

jana 

Maureen

"I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?"

***

Reading this completely dispelled my preconceived notions about the monster. I even used to think that Frankenstein was its name—but it was actually the creator's! So the great question of this book is, who is the real monster? I conclude it's the latter. 😕 

Overall, I'm glad to have read the first sci-fi novel. One classic down, and plenty more to go!

Coralie Bickford-Smith

Maurice Hindle

A foil-stamped clothbound edition of Mary Shelley's infamous work of horror fiction includes a unique new design by Coralie Bickford-Smith. 35,000 first printing.

Anna 

one of the greatest works of literature didn't disappoint me. yes it was kinda long and tiring sometimes bcs mary was told by percy to make it a novel even though she wanted it to be a short story, so it's understandable.
but oh my god. i want to talk about mary and her frankenstein like all the time. I really enjoyed reading it, plus the explanation of why she wrote it what did the relationship between frankenstein and the monster meant and overall what inspired her its just so... interesting to me!
frankenstein was not supposed to be a likeable character and i think mary did a great job portraying his not-so-good personality. on the other hand the monster just didn't know how to act like a person, bcs he wasn't one and never will be one, even though he tried. the dynamic between these two characters was really good. i also enjoyed the second part of the book, the one where the monster talks about how he had lived throughout the years before he met frankenstein. also the nature descriptions were really good.
.
i don't really know what else to say, i really enjoyed this book and mary is definitely my favorite romantic author ever!

Victor Frankenstein's monster is stitched together from the stolen limbs of the dead, and the result is a grotesque being who, rejected by his maker, sets out on a journey to seek his revenge. In the most famous gothic horror story ever told, Shelley confronts the limitations of science, the nature of human cruelty and the pathway to forgiveness.

Giulia Langella

Frankenstein, or, The modern Prometheus.

mary shelley don’t let the critics tell you it was percy who wrote the novel (he may have some nice poems but we both know his gothic novels were not giving v much ozymandias)

cyndi petronel

Leo Valentine

The Penguin English Library Edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 'Never did I behold a vision so horrible as his face, of such loathsome, yet appalling hideousness' A twisted, upside-down creation myth, Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale lays bare the dark side of science, and the horror within us all. It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, who plunders graveyards to create a new being from the bodies of the dead - but whose botched creature causes nothing but murder and destruction. Written after a nightmare when its author was only eighteen, Frankenstein gave birth to the modern science fiction novel. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Hanna Rybchynska

I really loved this book. Full of meanings and made me think a lot about life and existence.

Frankenstein (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Molly M

Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

Based on the third edition of 1831, this volume contains all the revisions Mary Shelley made to her story, as well as her 1831 introduction and Percy Bysshe Shelley's preface to the first edition. This revised edition includes as appendices a select collation of the texts of 1818 and 1831 together with 'A Fragment' by Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori's 'The Vampyre: A Tale'. 

Monicap

I'm actually really glad I read this book--I'd always been put off by the movie image of the creature, with screws and stitches all over the place, but that's not how he's described here, and this book doesn't feel like that at all.

The nestling narration is really intriguing--it draws the reader into one story at a time. 

Victor Frankenstein and the Creature are both morally, shall we say, gray. Interestingly, I sympathized greatly with the creature whose morality was pretty straight for most of his early 'life'. And yet, I also can't blame Frankenstein for the creature's actions. 

Really good story, highly recommended.

Giovanna

Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus (Road Classics)

Dani

Leer esta novela, me maravilló y constaté porqué es una de las obras que más ha influenciado la cultura pop. El acercamiento que hace Mary Shelly a la inocencia, a través del monstruo de Frankestein, es brutal. Nos muestra cómo el monstruo, al darse cuenta de que carece de las cualidades que los humanos valoran, se ve incapaz de integrarse con ellos y a pesar de ello, constantemente vuelve a la ternura, se maravilla de la naturaleza y de los humanos, comprendiendo que no puede vivir sin afecto ni comunidad.

Sin embargo, la humanidad continúa empujándolo a convertirse en una bestia por la forma en que lo tratan, lo humillan. Shelly habla sobre la propia humanidad, mostrando la distancia que a menudo mantenemos con aquel que es diferente. Y crear con esa diferencia un pozo sin fondo que nos alejará y nos hará juzgar al otro sin conocerlo ni entenderlo. 

Una lectura para replantearnos la codificación de la sociedad humana y repensarla antes de perder más de lo que somos capaces de dar.

i never knew that the real story was so tragic or that the monster’s creature’s name wasn’t frankenstein, it was actually the creator’s name: victor frankenstein; the creature remained unnamed. 

and you know what? justice for the nameless creature! victor had it coming!

reading, and enjoying, this book has made me more interested in mary shelley’s works.

joana

i never knew that the real story was so tragic or that the monster’s creature’s name wasn’t frankenstein, it was actually the creator’s name: victor frankenstein; the creature remained unnamed. 

and you know what? justice for the nameless creature! victor had it coming!

reading, and enjoying, this book has made me more interested in mary shelley’s works.

Charlotte Gordon

The 1818 Text

envee

I finally got the chance to read this! It’s been in my tbr for so long (as with all the other books in my tbr).

I absolutely loved the style of writing! It’s immensely descriptive, which may be a lot of people’s cup of tea (or maybe not). Personally, I adored it. If I were to describe the writing further, it’s like a story-ception. A story within a story, within another story, and then another story. That way of writing really added to the immersion since it let me view Victor in different perspectives.

Although a little tedious at some parts, it was so worth it to read through to see how the story of the monster unfolds and how he works through the complex inner workings of man. I don’t regard it as a horror story but rather, a sad one. I find myself sympathizing with the monster and thinking about what would happen if the monster had not been so alone, and had not been spurned by every human who saw him.

I see why it’s been enjoyed by many generations and would definitely recommend it to everyone. 💯

nikki

I finally got the chance to read this! It’s been in my tbr for so long (as with all the other books in my tbr).

I absolutely loved the style of writing! It’s immensely descriptive, which may be a lot of people’s cup of tea (or maybe not). Personally, I adored it. If I were to describe the writing further, it’s like a story-ception. A story within a story, within another story, and then another story. That way of writing really added to the immersion since it let me view Victor in different perspectives.

Although a little tedious at some parts, it was so worth it to read through to see how the story of the monster unfolds and how he works through the complex inner workings of man. I don’t regard it as a horror story but rather, a sad one. I find myself sympathizing with the monster and thinking about what would happen if the monster had not been so alone, and had not been spurned by every human who saw him.

I see why it’s been enjoyed by many generations and would definitely recommend it to everyone. 💯

Frankenstein
            
                Scholastic Classics

3.8/5. I heard that the version I read has been trimmed a lot by the author's husband. I wouldn't know how both versions differ, but it does feel kinda.. neat and censored? Idk, it could be any of the two's style, but I wonder how unfiltered the original version would be without the snipping. I imagine a bit of a wild and raw touch would do the the book good,, the writing's just okay as it is. But it's kinda funny how our main character could have just dropped dead any time because of how frail he was, and the plot just snowballed while he was bedridden for 3 months or so each time. 

I also like the glimpse of what scientists were like or what people think what scientists were like in that era, and the emotional conflict between Frankenstein and the monster was poignantly reflective. People rejection towards the monster mirrors how people treat differences in real life sometimes. It pained me how not a single person found in them a heart to even just listen to the monster. I was hoping and hoping for there to be a compromise between the two sides. But it's already over when one had resorted to murder and the other one had deaths to avenge, right? But there were so many points where it could've ended differently, except everyone has also been molded by their past and experiences to react as such, and there were barely any hope for the monster from the very start.

This reminds me of Of Mice and Men when George unfortunately had to conclude that Lennie was not meant for that world, that that world won't make a place for him and he'd better off somewhere else not to suffer. Sucks when the other solution is changing their whole world that just won't commit to understand people first before punishing, while we're just audiences or powerless characters who can't do shit. And the fact that the world would definitely side with the prematurely reactionary majority?? Sigh. SIGH. Anyways, my heart was breaking slowly for that side of the story, making this a 4 for the feels.

A 'short' read that will never be a short read. One of those books you have to read a few pages of and then sit with what was said. I shall leave you with a single quote: "I am malicious because I am miserable." And yet who said it? Frankenstein or the 'monster'? 

Kiersten

Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.

or, The Modern Prometheus

a classic indeed, although it felt a bit dragging at some points. less a horror book and more a reflection on loneliness and the evil of man

Nykky

"Beware: for I am fearless, and therefore powerful." - m.s.

Frankenstein

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