Customer Reviews

The Essential Frankenstein

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Editor Leonard Wolf has "given life" (pun intended) to Mary Wollestonecraft Shelley's classic. (this is the edition published in 1818) Thousands of facts on every aspect of the inspiration and evolution of the story as well as commentaries by Robert Bloch, Leonard Maltin, Forrest J. Ackerman and others. A Frankenstein filmography is also included as well as copies of Shelley's handwitten notes along with her original introduction to the 1831 edition of the book. For lovers of classic gothic horror, this edition should be the only version on your bookshelf....right next to Wolf's equally well done version of Bram Stoker's Dracula!

The footnotes really do invigorate this somewhat over-inflated classic (even Mary Shelley herself described her style as being "without pity for my reader"). The footnotes contain wonderful arcane and scandalous facts about the lives and love-lives of all those who inhabited Geneva that rainy summer and all those related to them: Shelley, Byron et al. I'm looking forward to acquiring Mr Wolf's annotated _Dracula_.

This is an extremely helpful tool to understand many aspects of the novel that may be overlooked. I would've liked to see the final edition text added to this edition. But this is a great resource, especially for students/teachers. The worst part of the whole book is the commentary thrown in at the end by hack Science Fiction writer and Killer of Dune Kevin J. Anderson. I was in a good mood until I had to see his name thrown in with another classic. Oh well.