Customer Reviews

Frankenstein (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After seeing at least five versions of this tale in film - one of my great childhood monster loves - I was happy to finally read the novel. As so often occurs with classics, I was as surprised as I was fascinated.

For starters, the characters are far more subtle than any of the film versions: Victor F appears as a brooding and obsessed genius, but also as a great lover of life and nature. The monster, who is an articulate and literate creature who read Goethe, is even more interesting, from his hopeful beginning to his bitter reaction at rejection and his thirst for vengence. His eloquence was vivid and his pain horribly realistic.

But the work is also fascinating as a window into the mind of the Romantics, who at once strove to reject the rationalism of the Enlightenment yet reflected it. The creature starts off empty and what it becomes is due entirely to his experience. Knowledge is not always good, etc.

Finally, the themes are timeless and full of conflict: creativity giving birth to unimaginable destruction, tampering with nature as its necessities overwhelm even genius, and the like. THe book is a kaleidescope of philosophical reflection. The pain of the creator and the monster alike are inescapably linked like father and son.

I did find the style of the book a bit difficult. It is full of florid rhetoric and lengthy circumlocutions, as the doctor and then the monster tell their stories in almost identical prose.

Highly recommended.

To start, let me say that I'm an admirer of this series, and have found other books in the series extremely useful (Turn of the Screw, House of Mirth). Having taught the Frankenstein edition this quarter, though, I find myself disappointed in the selection of essays, most of which seem to date from an unfortunate moment in the history of critical theory, a time when critics tended to ape the style of their masters (Lacan and Derrida in particular), letting short bursts of dense ideas substitute for sustained explication. I say "unfortunate" because while such density has its place (more, to my mind, in Lacan or Derrida themselves, who have a linguistic and theoretical purpose for their density), it is off-putting in a volume that purports to be an introduction to critical theory implicitly for undergraduates. Ironically or not, Smith's own contribution is by far the clearest of the bunch, with the psychoanalytic contribution appearing nearly unreadable to most undergraduates and many graduate students (thanks to an intense, and to my eyes rare, focus on Lacan's Imaginary Order). I will not teach this volume again.

You don't know Frankenstein until you've read the novel. Forget everything you remember about the classic horror movie of Frankenstein, sure it's great cinema, but the movie just doesn't do it justice like the novel does. The novel has every quality of a perfect story, and Mary Shelley paints a picture with her writing that's far more disturbing and exciting than the movie ever was. What's really great about the book is that the creature speaks and is literate. Throughout the novel, the creature does speaks about the cruelty of man and I actually had sympathy for him as he told his accounts of misfortune. One thing I particularly liked is the way the creature was almost invincible, it really added to the horror that his creator feels as he's chasing him through the bitter cold. The novel is not difficult reading at all and has a decent steady pace to it. There is more than meets the eye to the novel as well. One could look at Shelly's work through a psychoanalytical standpoint and see the novel on an entirely different level than just what's on the surface. Psychoanalyzing the novel brings with it some interesting discussions; for instance, is the creature really just a duplicate of its creator? Read the book and form your own analysis, you won't be disappointed.

I enjoyed reading Frankenstein, but it wasn't at all what I expected. I had all these horrific images in my head about some terrible, ugly monster. Mary Shelley does not provide her readers with a descriptive image of what the monster truly looks like. As I read this novel, my imagination ran free. As different stories were told, and different emotions were expressed, the images and thoughts in my head of the monster changed. The general theme conveyed is that Victor Frankenstein has to deal with the consequences of his creation. He was so eager to creat life and a god-like figure, but once it was complete, he was disgusted. He did not want to deal with his creation, nor have any relation to it. Ultimately, Victor became his creature's slave. Victor Frankenstein had to deal with many losses and hardships, but he stayed strong till the end. At the end, the monster narrates his side of the story and after completing his "job" he disappears and goes back to being on his own. Although the book started off a bit slow, it picked up and kept my interest until the end. I would recommend reading this book, especially to those who have seen the movie because the book leaves more to the imagination and can be interpreted in many different ways.

I believe that people think of Frankenstein as being a horrible monster that tormented towns and people with bolts coming out of his neck. Even I had fallen under these mis-conceptions from watching the old b&w movies on TV as a small child. The movies we watched set us up for that, but after reading the book by Mary Shelley, I was surprised to learn and see things differently. Mary wrote a classic horror story that even though moves at a slow pace for our time (story originally written in the 1800's) still can scare the reader. Were told what we need to know about key characters in the book, but other descriptions such as the what the monster truly looks like are left out. We are allowed to imagine that and because of this, allowed to use what scares us the most in this world to scare ourselves. Even the theme and plot that runs through the book could be looked at, as political or social issues that still plague the world today. When all is said and done, the book Frankenstein is a great book that should be read be everyone that enjoys not only horror books, but also romantic classics.

This edition contains several critical essays about Frankenstein (they follow the actual story). Each essay uses a particular literary theory and applies it to the text 9in front of the essay is a description/analysis of the theory being used). For example, one essay applies Freud's Oedipus Complex and Lacan's Mirror Stage to the development of Victor and the monster. Some of the other theories are Feminism, Marxism and New Historicism. It is interesting to see the novel from all these different perspectives. Expect to see contradictions in interruptions from theory to theory. My only complaint is the selection of essays. Half of them are poorly chosen (ex. Psychoanalysis and Feminism). I could have selected a better selection. The essays can be very confusing; jumping all over the place and trying to cover to many ideas at once. It takes awhile simply to figure out exactly what the author's main point is. You would have better luck simply researching the theory and then applying what you know yourself to the text. Either way, it is a fun exercise and makes one appreciate even more just how amazing a book it truly is.

When the name Frankenstein is heard the majority of the people, myself included, do not look at or see the political or social issues that affected the world in the 1800s as well as today. The story is about a scientist who becomes obssessed with the idea of playing god, creating another human life. Victor rejects his creation causing the monster to not receive the love and affection that he needs. I liked how the book allowed you to use your imagination when it came to what the monster looked like. Frankenstein is timeless novel that forces you to think about what scares you most in life.

This is one of the edition that I have read that you can get the tru sense of the story. I recommend this book to whoever likes a great mystery.

This is a great version of the book! I love the different perspectives that are listed behind the novel. Good buy.

There is a certain image that is attached with the name Frankenstien that just makes people all over think of a mad scientists creation that is 10 feet tall with bolts on his neck, green skin, and viens popping out all over. In reality, Mary Shelley had a much different picture painted for readers in her book Frankenstein. Shelley does an amazing job of depicting her story of the creator whose name is Frankenstein, not the creatures, journey through his own psychological difficulties. Her use of imagrey and detail makes it and easy read for high school, college students, old and young alike. It is a classic tale of what goes around, comes around and in the end, you pay for your decisions 10 fold. There is continuious adventure and mystery learking with each turn of a page, and this keeps the reader on the edge. This novel is one of adventure and drama, and I give it a 10!