( 13 reviews )
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Posted: Apr 7 2009
Great Book. A classic that everyone should read at least one time. Reaally makes us think.
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Posted: Mar 29 2009
I just finished reading Frankenstein (first time I've read it). I was surprised that I actually liked it! I imagined it would be dull. The story moved along at a good pace. I especially liked how much emotion was expressed by the characters, and the parallels that can be drawn from Frankenstein's creation that haunts him and things we create in our own lives that may do the same.
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Posted: Nov 12 2008
Like Poe, strong roots in its Gothic horror era make this story too wordy to be read as a contemporary classic (contradiction in terms, I suppose), but the basic storyline does stand up over time. A basic story, by the way, which no movie version has yet successfully captured, not even Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. That overwrought hyper-surrealistic version by Kenneth Brannagh captures the framework of the book in neat prologue/epilogue bookends, and Robert De Niro captures the menace and humanity of the creature, but Brannagh makes some boneheaded plot changes (particularly the handling of Henry and Elizabeth) that clank off the rim. That said, though, it would be hard for any movie maker to capture this story which is told strictly in first person narrative, even when told through another's eyes or voice or pen. At one point, the narrative is retold with four layers between the reader and the actor. Good luck turning that into a movie. And the basic conflict of the story still rings true, and is really what the book is about; unlike Brannagh, who dwells lovingly on the process, Shelley barely describes the creation of the creature, and wisely so. The focus is on the creature and its creator, not on the creative process. And as De Niro the creature says in the movie at a very dramatic turn, "I keep my promises". Frankenstein, the man and the creator, does not.
