Customer Reviews

Frankenstein

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3 star:		(1)
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The main idea of this novel came to Mary Shelley from a dream she had in the midst of a story writing contest during an extended visit by herself, her husband Percy, and Byron. They'd engaged in a contest to write a horrific story. The two, more famous writers didn't produce anything that went anywhere, but Mary Shelley's story, "Frankenstein" grew into one of the best monster novels ever written.

The book is a frame narrative, written in the form of journal style letters from an explorer sailing through the arctic. The main story is told from Dr. Frankenstein's perspective after most of the plot has already occured. Frankenstein is in the midst of chasing down his creation and in retelling the story, from his decidedly slanted view, the question of who the real monster is, the creation or Frankenstein himself, arises.

"Frankenstein" begins and ends in the frozen Arctic waste as the crew of an ice-locked ship discovers two antagonists locked in a deadly game of pursuit and capture. Baron Victor Frankestein has created a monster which destroyed everything and everyone Frankenstein held dear. Frankenstein, swearing revenge, has pursued the monster half way around the world. Finally, exhausted and near death he meets his nemesis on board the ship. The story is told in a series of flashbacks as Frankenstein recounts his pitiful tale of woe to the captain of the ship. The story structure remains fairly true to the plot of the book, but the writer did introduce some innovations.

Most surviving old time radio shows are half hour segments for weekly broadcast. Apparently, however, daily serials with 15 minute episodes were also popular. "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" made good use of this format, with a story beginning on Monday and concluding with the capture of the criminal on Friday. The longer format gave the opportunity for greater character development and more fully conceived plots.

With all the advantages afforded by the serial format, "Frankenstein" makes for somewhat of a disappointment. The dialog is over-dramatic, the characters are wooden, and they engage in illogical, inadequately motivated behavior throughout. One unintentionally humorous feature of the play comes as the actors repeatedly deliver mid-twentieth century slang phrases with German accents. Another discordant note is struck when Frankenstein, believing himself near death, calls to his deceased wife "Elizabeth, I'm coming to you!" Of course the writers had no way of anticipating that Redd Foxx would make that phrase a comic refrain as Fred Sanford. One particularly good thing about the play was the monster's self-justifying speeches. Taken alone they sounded like the high-minded complaint of an innocent-but-put-upon victim of circumstance. The monster's protestations of innocence in the face of persecution fell flat, however, when measured against his evil actions.

Despite the weaknesses of plot, dialog, and character development, the play had power. I listened to it straight through on a long business trip. It didn't seem nearly as long as it would have if I'd only had the radio for companionship.

man, dis book was off the hook up in this beezy. man, i was scary sometimes. i was nice. you should read dis piece because it was nice.