Mary Shelley

Karen Swallow Prior

Frankenstein. Jane Eyre. You're familiar with these pillars of classic literature. You have seen plenty of Frankenstein costumes, watched the film adaptations, and may even be able to rattle off a few quotes, but do you really know how to read these books? Do you know anything about the authors who wrote them, and what the authors were trying to teach readers through their stories? Do you know how to read them as a Christian? Continuing this beautifully designed series, bestselling author, literature professor, and avid reader Karen Swallow Prior will guide you through a selection of classics. She will not only navigate you through the pitfalls that trap readers today, but show you how to read them in light of the gospel, and to the glory of God.

A Guide to Reading and Reflecting

Frankenstein

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.'

Taryn

I dared not advance, dreading a thousand nameless evils that made me tremble, although I was unable to define them. 

But now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. 

Dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete! 

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.

martian1138

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.

If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind. 

I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth. 

I believed myself totally unfitted for the company of strangers. 

It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. 

As a child I scribbled; and my favourite pastime, during the hours given me for recreation, was to 'write stories'. Still I had a dearer pleasure than this, which was the formation of castles in the air — the indulging in waking dreams — the following up of trains of thought, which had for their subject the formation of a succession of imaginary incidents. My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings. In the latter I was a close imitator — rather doing as others had done, than putting down the suggestions of my own mind. What I wrote was intended at least for one other eye — my childhood's companion and friend; but my dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed — my dearest pleasure when free. 

nadine 

You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which regard myself. I look on the bands 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.

I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice.

For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisty my own desires. They were for ever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?

When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; 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.

My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.

Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock.

Soon, oh, very soon, will death extinguish these throbbings and relieve me from the mighty weight of anguish that bears me to the dust; and, in executing the award of justice, I shall also sink to rest. Then the appearance of death was distant, although the wish was ever present to my thoughts; and I often sat for hours motionless and speechless, wishing for some mighty revolution that might bury me and my destroyer in its ruins. 

How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!

But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit what I shall soon cease to be- miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others and intolerable to myself.

The path of my departure was free and there was none to lament my annihilation. My person as hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.

These wonderful narrations inspired me with feelings. Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one tinme 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 andI turned away with disgust and loathing. 

If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched.

Alas! 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.

Thus not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty of earth nor of heaven, could redeem my soul from woe; the very accents of love were ineffectual. I was encompassed by a cloud which no beneficial influence could penetrate. The wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs to some untrodden brake, there to gaze upon the arrow which had pierced it, and to die, was but a type of me.

Clara Concejo

Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.

IMO should be a mandatory read in middle school. Otherwise I gathered beau landscape and sad.

Insist on the original 1818 version.

IMO should be a mandatory read in middle school. Otherwise I gathered beau landscape and sad.

Now, is there a section for Happy books?

And what if I tattooed the creature’s whole final monologue on my back? Huh? What then?

Jacque

Charlotte Gordon

The 1818 Text

So much has already been said and so many ways you can read Frankenstein… personally to me what stuck was Shelley’s depiction of crushing alienation in the creature - I think the text lends itself to reading through a Marxist lens (Franco Moretti’s The Dialectic of Fear does this v well methinks)

admittedly I picked this up because I watched Guillermo del Torro’s film adaptation (I’ve fallen for the Jacob Elordi propaganda unforch). I am just a lil surprised at how many creative liberties del Torro took in his adaptation - the film is definitely way more Oedipal which was an interesting choice for sure but no complaints

Taira Robles

So much has already been said and so many ways you can read Frankenstein… personally to me what stuck was Shelley’s depiction of crushing alienation in the creature - I think the text lends itself to reading through a Marxist lens (Franco Moretti’s The Dialectic of Fear does this v well methinks)

admittedly I picked this up because I watched Guillermo del Torro’s film adaptation (I’ve fallen for the Jacob Elordi propaganda unforch). I am just a lil surprised at how many creative liberties del Torro took in his adaptation - the film is definitely way more Oedipal which was an interesting choice for sure but no complaints

not enough creature!!!!!! I love you creature!!!

Grace M

"Some years ago, when the images which this world affords first opened upon me, when I felt the cheering warmth of summer and heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation. Polluted by crimes and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death?"

Coinciding a reading of Frankenstein along with the 1931 and 2025 versions of the movie, was probabaly one of the highlights of my year. And to come to realise the circumstances under which. Shelley created this tale of a god-complex in search for power that stems from trauma of losing a loved one, heartbreaking. I think I'm a little biased with this reading because of del Toro's adaptation as well, the tale told through the eyes of an empath holds more truly indeed.

diya

"Some years ago, when the images which this world affords first opened upon me, when I felt the cheering warmth of summer and heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation. Polluted by crimes and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death?"

Coinciding a reading of Frankenstein along with the 1931 and 2025 versions of the movie, was probabaly one of the highlights of my year. And to come to realise the circumstances under which. Shelley created this tale of a god-complex in search for power that stems from trauma of losing a loved one, heartbreaking. I think I'm a little biased with this reading because of del Toro's adaptation as well, the tale told through the eyes of an empath holds more truly indeed.

D.L. MacDonald

Kathleen Scherf

Frankenstein,3rd Edition

This is a reread as the first time I read it was for a si fi class. Very glad I did

Florence

Thoroughly enjoyed this fantastic piece of literature by Miss Shelley. Definitely not the “language” I am used to reading but I’m pretty pleased with how quick I got through this! Looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation very soon!!!

ophelia ross 

"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 humanity and horror that blurs the line between man and monster...The story of Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he created has held readers spellbound ever since it was published two centuries ago. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting horror; but on a more profound level, it offers searching illumination of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a monster brought to life in an alien world, ever more desperately attempting to escape the torture of his solitude. A novel of hallucinatory intensity, Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination."

Or The Modern Prometheus: (illustrated Edition)

A delightful reread via the audiobook narrated by Dan Stevens.

Emiley Jones

Rachel

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.

yearning competition but ur opponent is Frankenstein's Monster

SONYA 𝜗𝒞

I don’t typically rate classics but yeah, it really was that good.

Tabitha Rone

Jonnie

Hands down, my favourite book of all time. 

Nina Bertrand

Story: 4/5, Writing: 2.5/5. While I know this writing is typical of the time period, the long passages about Frankenstein’s mental anguish get really old. 

Kristen Savage

I remember reading this back in school. I didn't want to tho (I have always struggled with reading, to the date) but I did so that I could get a 90 on my Spanish test. I ended up with a 60, but I loved the book anyway, so it was worth it!

Katherine Jaenn

The best-selling student edition on the market, now available in a Second Edition. Almost two centuries after its publication, Frankenstein remains an indisputably classic text and Mary Shelley’s finest work. This extensively revised Norton Critical Edition includes new texts and illustrative materials that convey the enduring global conversation about Frankenstein and its author. The text is that of the 1818 first edition, published in three volumes by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones. It is accompanied by an expansive new preface, explanatory annotations, a map of Geneva and its environs, and seven illustrations, five of them new to the Second Edition. Context is provided in three supporting sections: “Circumstance, Influence, Composition, Revision,” “Reception, Impact, Adaptation,” and “Sources, Influences, Analogues.” Among the Second Edition’s new inclusions are historical-cultural studies by Susan Tyler Hitchcock, William St. Clair, and Elizabeth Young; Chris Baldrick on the novel’s reception; and David Pirie on the novel’s many film adaptations. Related excerpts from the Bible and from John Milton’s Paradise Lost are now included, as is Charles Lamb’s poem “The Old Familiar Faces.” “Criticism” collects sixteen major interpretations of Frankenstein, nine of them new to the Second Edition. The new contributors are Peter Brooks, Bette London, Garrett Stewart, James. A. W. Heffernan, Patrick Brantlinger, Jonathan Bate, Anne Mellor, Jane Goodall, and Christa Knellwolf. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Frankenstein (Second International Student Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)

Amazing book with great questioning about what makes a human, human.

I get why people sympathize with the creature more, but for me it was Victor all the way who carried tho book and who I found attractive as a character, I guess it has to do with him being a Byronic Heroe.

Atrix 

Amazing book with great questioning about what makes a human, human.

I get why people sympathize with the creature more, but for me it was Victor all the way who carried tho book and who I found attractive as a character, I guess it has to do with him being a Byronic Heroe.

Recommended, loved it. 

complex and compelling, can easily be devoured in one day. i am feeling quite empty now that i have finished it. i particularly enjoyed mary shelley’s dissection of what it means to be a human and to live. to live despite suffering, rejection, and the crushing weight of loneliness. 

Mary Shelley intertwines the timeless themes of past guilt and future fear, seamlessly shaping them into a vivid portrait of Victor’s relentless struggles. Not excessively, but with a delicate touch of hope—an ember of faith in goodness, even against the weight of our most inherent darkness. I’m not particularly drawn to straightforward depictions of anguish; instead, I’m captivated by the slow unraveling, the kind that lingers and leaves an aching void. Yet Shelley has a way of disarming me, slipping past my expectations whenever I anticipate a conventional portrayal of suffering. I can say with certainty that I’m wholly devoted, destined to remain a wreck for as long as Victor Frankenstein is bound to his crushing fate, searching for salvation amid his own ruins. And to the one whose wisdom shaped a life-changing story for Walton and all who would later hear his tale; I beseech the universe to grant you peace at last, as you perish with your enemy crushed in your grasp. It is both your punishment and your redemption, a fate only you can ensure is not in vain. May you find eternal peace alongside those you once loved.

🏹

Think not, Walton, that in the last moments of my existence I feel that burning hatred and ardent desire of revenge I once expressed; but I feel myself justified in desiring the death of my adversary. During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blamable. In a fit of enthusiastic madness I created a rational creature and was bound towards him to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being. This was my duty, but there was another still paramount to that. My duties towards the beings of my own species had greater claims to my attention because they included a greater proportion of happiness or misery.

Mary Shelley intertwines the timeless themes of past guilt and future fear, seamlessly shaping them into a vivid portrait of Victor’s relentless struggles. Not excessively, but with a delicate touch of hope—an ember of faith in goodness, even against the weight of our most inherent darkness. I’m not particularly drawn to straightforward depictions of anguish; instead, I’m captivated by the slow unraveling, the kind that lingers and leaves an aching void. Yet Shelley has a way of disarming me, slipping past my expectations whenever I anticipate a conventional portrayal of suffering. I can say with certainty that I’m wholly devoted, destined to remain a wreck for as long as Victor Frankenstein is bound to his crushing fate, searching for salvation amid his own ruins. And to the one whose wisdom shaped a life-changing story for Walton and all who would later hear his tale; I beseech the universe to grant you peace at last, as you perish with your enemy crushed in your grasp. It is both your punishment and your redemption, a fate only you can ensure is not in vain. May you find eternal peace alongside those you once loved.

I am not hooked as y'all, and I feel guilty... I've been reading the reviews about this book because I didn't LOVE this enough. 

Edit: Looking back, I feel proud I read this. IKONIQUE

Tina Villarete

I am not hooked as y'all, and I feel guilty... I've been reading the reviews about this book because I didn't LOVE this enough. 

Edit: Looking back, I feel proud I read this. IKONIQUE

Might be because of AP Literature, but this might be the first book I REALLY understood. Not just like surface level stuff. Or I’m being overconfident. Victor and Henry shoulda made out sloppy style 

Elias Bouschor

Who are we in this story? And what does that say about us?

I love this book, there’s so much I’m left to think about. The constant ramblings about nature’s beauty and awe, though lengthy, create an important juxtaposition to the Creature’s unnatural and repulsive existence. I felt a deep sympathy for him and maybe related a little to the feelings of betrayal and rejection that motivated his behavior. Victor was super annoying sometimes and undeniably egotistical, which I didn’t realize was so intentional until reading up on some Mary Shelley history. To me, the story felt like somewhat of a rebuttal to the traditional Creation story we’re generally familiar with, which seems obvious given the explicit references to Paradise Lost and Prometheus but that might still be me projecting my own complicated feelings of spirituality onto the text. 

Emilee Keawe Oldroyd

Who are we in this story? And what does that say about us?

I love this book, there’s so much I’m left to think about. The constant ramblings about nature’s beauty and awe, though lengthy, create an important juxtaposition to the Creature’s unnatural and repulsive existence. I felt a deep sympathy for him and maybe related a little to the feelings of betrayal and rejection that motivated his behavior. Victor was super annoying sometimes and undeniably egotistical, which I didn’t realize was so intentional until reading up on some Mary Shelley history. To me, the story felt like somewhat of a rebuttal to the traditional Creation story we’re generally familiar with, which seems obvious given the explicit references to Paradise Lost and Prometheus but that might still be me projecting my own complicated feelings of spirituality onto the text. 

felt as if a lot of the monologue was very unnecessarily long and drawn out; otherwise i enjoyed

WOW where to start with this? I had very high hopes for this legendary classic and was NOT disappointed.

I must confess, this is my first Mary Shelley book so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but I have only heard good things, so I was eager to get started.

From the moment I started this book, I was truly hooked on every word, something that doesn’t come often for a book written almost 200 years ago. I had presumed it would be a slow-starter but NOPE, we were straight into the story and I couldn’t put this book down.

What do I not love about this book? Everything was spectacularly created, such as the divine and meaningful word choice that gave me shivers when describing even the simplest of things, the dimensional and realistic characters, and the way that Shelley is able to describe the most relatable of feelings and reactions to experiences that prove this book is just so valid almost 200 years on. I also loved the moral conflict that has still left me wondering and reflecting on who I believe was justified in this tale. 

Selina 

WOW where to start with this? I had very high hopes for this legendary classic and was NOT disappointed.

I must confess, this is my first Mary Shelley book so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but I have only heard good things, so I was eager to get started.

From the moment I started this book, I was truly hooked on every word, something that doesn’t come often for a book written almost 200 years ago. I had presumed it would be a slow-starter but NOPE, we were straight into the story and I couldn’t put this book down.

What do I not love about this book? Everything was spectacularly created, such as the divine and meaningful word choice that gave me shivers when describing even the simplest of things, the dimensional and realistic characters, and the way that Shelley is able to describe the most relatable of feelings and reactions to experiences that prove this book is just so valid almost 200 years on. I also loved the moral conflict that has still left me wondering and reflecting on who I believe was justified in this tale. 

5 ⭐️

And it still remains one of my favorite novels to this day. 

Frankenstein A Guide to Reading and Reflecting

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