Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

Mar 2014 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

The premier monster story of English literature—a tale of science pursued to horrifying extremes
An origin story nearly as famous as the book itself: One dreary summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, amid discussions of galvanism and the occult and fireside readings from a collection of German ghost stories, Lord Byron proposed a game. Each of his guests—eighteen-year-old Mary Godwin and her future husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, among them—would try their hand at writing a tale of the supernatural. Unable at first to think of a plot, Mary was visited one sleepless night by the terrible vision of a corpse, a “hideous phantasm of a man,” lurching to life with the application of some unknown, powerful force. The man responsible, a “pale student of unhallowed arts,” fled in horror from his creation, leaving it to return to the dead matter from which it had been born. But the monster did not die. It followed the man to his bedside, where it stood watching him with “yellow, watery, but speculative eyes”—eyes of one who thought, and felt. 
The novel that Mary Shelley would go on to publish, the legend of Victor Frankenstein and his unholy creation, and their obsessive, murderous pursuit of each other from Switzerland to the North Pole, has been the stuff of nightmares for nearly two centuries. A masterpiece of Romantic literature, it is also one of the most enduring horror stories ever written.
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Ratings and reviews

Pros: highly influential, important to understanding the genre, a novel concept for its time. Narrated almost entirely by the villain, which is hard to pull off. Cons: wordy and melodramatic, a never-ending pity party for an arrogant f***boy. Victor Frankenstein very obviously has untreated bipolar disorder and refuses to take any responsibility.

Long have I waited for a good book to pass by my eyes. Personally I haven't read a full book since high school. I wanted a great one to start off with. I have heard of "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley to be a story of great virtue. I have only seen movies and shows of the "Creature," but to finally read the book was the most exhilaterating peice of work. The words in such detail of the world that this partakes in. It has taken me a long time to divulge into the world of books and I am very satisfied with the first one that I have finished. Many more will I read after this one. Frankenstein will forever be one of my favorite books. After reading this I know.

Amazing story, could not put it down. I seemed to sympathize with the monster. It really begs the question of morality and what is right or wrong depending on the beliefs of man.

About the author

DIVMary Shelley (1797–1851) was the only daughter of the political philosopher William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, celebrated author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. At the age of sixteen, Shelley (then Mary Godwin) scandalized English society by eloping with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was married. Best known for the genre-defining Frankenstein (1818), she was a prolific writer of fiction, travelogues, and biographies during her lifetime, and was instrumental in securing the literary reputation of Percy Shelley after his tragic death./div