

Frankenstein
Books | Fiction / Horror
3.8
(790)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
* This book publication is unique which includes exclusive Introduction, Historical Background and handcrafted additional content. * This edition also includes detailed Biography. * This edition has been corrected for spelling and grammatical errors.Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley about eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823.Shelley had travelled through Europe in 1814, journeying along the river Rhine in Germany with a stop in Gernsheim which is just 17 km (10 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where two centuries before an alchemist was engaged in experiments. Later, she traveled in the region of Geneva (Switzerland)-where much of the story takes place-and the topics of galvanism and other similar occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her lover and future husband, Percy Shelley. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron, and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made; her dream later evolved into the story within the novel.Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction. Brian Aldiss has argued that it should be considered the first true science fiction story, because unlike in previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science fiction, the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and "turns to modern experiments in the laboratory" to achieve fantastic results. It has had a considerable influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories, films, and plays.Since publication of the novel, the name "Frankenstein" is often used to refer to the monster itself, as is done in the stage adaptation by Peggy Webling. This usage is sometimes considered erroneous, but usage commentators regard the monster sense of "Frankenstein" as well-established and an acceptable usage. In the novel, the monster is identified via words such as "creature", "monster", "fiend", "wretch", "vile insect", "daemon", "being", and "it". Speaking to Victor Frankenstein, the monster refers to himself as "the Adam of your labours", and elsewhere as someone who "would have" been "your Adam", but is instead "your fallen angel."
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More Details:
Author
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Pages
148
Publisher
Millennium Publications
Published Date
2014
ISBN
1503262421 9781503262423
Community ReviewsSee all
"Frankenstein was so fun to read. I LOVED hating on Victor throughout the novel. He’s a pos and honestly deserved worse than he got. The structure of story telling was captivating because it switches between three points of view and each reveals a little bit of something we didn’t know before. I found the creature’s chapters sympathetic and full of lush descriptions. I also think there’s so many ways to interpret the message of this book and I loved having discussions about it."
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Alyssa Czernek
"Everyone should read it, but like Dracula it is not the easiest to get through for modern readers."
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Nancy
"The book of my high school years is thought provoking and greatly written. "
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Gavin Brooks
"Thanks! Do you mean an overall favorite or a favorite within a certain genre?"
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Aryeh Halevy
"OK, so I seem to have really known nothing about the original Frankenstein story. Turns out, there is no Igor and the monster ends up with a wonderful command of language. There is also a tremendous lack of action, so I am very glad I listened to this instead of reading it or I never would have finished. I will say, though, I now understand the beginning of the movie I, Frankenstein much better."
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Ricki Marking-Camuto
"Another great classic read. If you haven’t read the story of Frankenstein I highly recommend. It was one of those stories that when I first read it I was hmm this is nothing that I thought it was or that I thought I knew of Frankenstein. "
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Teisha Brincat
"A misunderstood character. Love and companionship. Wonderful "
J P
Jessie Pomerleau
"Really good not what I expected based on what Frankenstein is like in movies but the age makes it kind of hard to read"
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Nathan Chalem-Wallach
"I found this classic tedious to get through."
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Rebekah Travis
"Finally<br/><br/>It was my own stubbornness that kept me going, that fueled me to finish this book. When, in reality, I wanted to drop it within the first chapter. But no, I wanted to be able to say I've read a classic - that I was truly a bookworm. <br/><br/>What can I say about Frankenstein? <br/>It is dry.<br/>It goes into details about things I was not interested in - like what about the engineering of the monster? I want to hear about the grisly details - how were the parts obtained, how were they put together, how was "the monster" reanimated? <br/>But no, I got description after description of how many times Frankenstein fainted, how lovely his cousin (but not cousin) is, and how unwell he was. Frankenstein just whined... a lot, and refused to step up as a creator to his monster. For stars sake - he literally left the monster right after he created him! <br/><br/>I don't know, man. I'm not going to waste any more time on this book by trying to type up an eloquent review. It was not my cup of tea."
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Valerie Hansel
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