Frankenstein - BookDragons

Paperback, 141 pages

English language

Published April 1, 2019 by Independently published.

ISBN:: 978-1-0996-2398-1

(1 review)

It starts one freezing morning, a man wanders alone across the Arctic ice and is rescued from starvation by a captain of a ship. Doctor Victor Frankenstein's story is one of ambition, hubris, murder, alienation and revenge. As a younger scientist he breaks moral boundaries in order to mimic God and create life. But his creation is a monster stitched together from grave-robbed body parts who has no place in the world, and his life can only lead to tragedy and isolation. Mary Shelly's gothic tale is one of the greatest horror stories ever published and considered by some to be the first science fiction novel.

124 editions

el dang reviewed Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

An unexpected pleasure

5 stars

I wasn't expecting to like this book anywhere near as much as I ended up doing! The story as told in the book is much more interesting than the limited image of it that's got in to popular culture, and this was my first encounter with the whole thing. It's so much more about deeply flawed Victor Frankenstein (TLDR: our reading group kept using the term "main character syndrome") than about the mad science process. And while the creature is far from likeable, his portrayal has genuine pathos, even though most of what we hear about him is secondhand through the recounting of someone who hates him.

There are several impressively strong resonances to the modern world, between the general lack of ethics in tech and the current wave of "AI" hype. And of course big self-centred men who think that extreme success in one sphere gives them licence to …

I wasn't expecting to like this book anywhere near as much as I ended up doing! The story as told in the book is much more interesting than the limited image of it that's got in to popular culture, and this was my first encounter with the whole thing. It's so much more about deeply flawed Victor Frankenstein (TLDR: our reading group kept using the term "main character syndrome") than about the mad science process. And while the creature is far from likeable, his portrayal has genuine pathos, even though most of what we hear about him is secondhand through the recounting of someone who hates him.

There are several impressively strong resonances to the modern world, between the general lack of ethics in tech and the current wave of "AI" hype. And of course big self-centred men who think that extreme success in one sphere gives them licence to behave as badly as they like in others.