Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is an atmospheric, Gothic story that begins on a Captains ship stuck in ice, then takes us all over Europe as Dr. Victor Frankenstein tells his story to the Captain, Walton. According to Wikipedia, Frankenstein was first published anonymously in January 1818. Five years later Mary Shelley’s name appeared on the second edition cover. She apparently based the novel on a dream. I’ve watched many movies and TV shows based on the Frankenstein story, not realizing how much they differ from the original story.

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

Title: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Audiobook: Published Oct 4, 2011 by Naxos Audiobooks

Genre: Classic, Horror, Sci-Fi, Gothic, Fantasy

I also read an ebook version, that did not have publisher, year, or ISBN. I did manage to find a picture of the cover online. http://alessandria.bookrepublic.it/api/books/9781623958138/cover

“Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature’s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18490.Frankenstein

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

Prometheus is an intelligent Titan from Greek mythology punished by Zeus after attempting to aid humans. He represents the dangers of human technological progress. Dr. Frankenstein, motivated by a desire to become famous, becomes obsessed with creating life. After he succeeds he flees from the monster that he’s created. The monster, at first is innocent and kind, becomes hateful and resentful after being mistreated by humans.

The character development and writing quality is extraordinary. I’m fascinated that Shelley could write a book that’s incredibly pertinent even two hundred years later. My only dislike is that the beginning is a little sluggish, however, once Dr. Frankenstein begins to relate his tale to Walton the intensity and pace pick up.

“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be his world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.”

Written during a time when Romanticism and Enlightenment movements were at their peak, Frankenstein is a page-turning mystery which takes us on a journey of dark and light, hope and despair, blending science fiction, romance, along with horror into a heart-breaking story about responsibility, and humility, showing us that in the end all we really want is love and acceptance.

“I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me.”

“Mary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, often known as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, travel writer, and editor of the works of her husband, Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. She was the daughter of the political philosopher William Godwin and the writer, philosopher, and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer in her own lifetime, though reviewers often missed the political edge to her novels. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. It was not until 1989, when Emily Sunstein published her prizewinning biography Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, that a full-length scholarly biography analyzing all of Shelley’s letters, journals, and works within their historical context was published.

The well-meaning attempts of Mary Shelley’s son and daughter-in-law to “Victorianise” her memory through the censoring of letters and biographical material contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley’s works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in the later years of her life added to this impression.

The eclipse of Mary Shelley’s reputation as a novelist and biographer meant that, until the last thirty years, most of her works remained out of print, obstructing a larger view of her achievement. She was seen as a one-novel author, if that. In recent decades, however, the republication of almost all her writings has stimulated a new recognition of its value. Her voracious reading habits and intensive study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated. Shelley’s recognition of herself as an author has also been recognized; after Percy’s death, she wrote about her authorial ambitions: “I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea”. Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.”