Generally considered a greater film that its predecessor, Frankenstein, this sequel starred Elsa Lanchester as the eponymous heroine and Boris Karloff repeating his role as the monster. Manguel gives a detailed and highly sensitive account of the film's felicities of inventive filmmaking. He also traces the literary roots of the Frankenstein myth, the creation of a living being by a man usurping the powers of a jealous God. And he finds echoes in the work of modern artists such as Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp of the Bride as a kind of femme fetale, monstrous and threatening.
Internationally acclaimed as an anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, and editor, Alberto Manguel is the bestselling author of several award-winning books, including A Dictionary of Imaginary Places and A History of Reading. He was born in Buenos Aires, moved to Canada in 1982 and now lives in France, where he was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre français des Arts et des Lettres.
