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Dec 21, 2018IndyPL_SteveB rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
One of the original “horror” stories, written by a 19-year-old woman trying to impress her “great writer” husband. While the ideas have a great deal of interest, the writing is dreadfully long-winded and indirect, nearly indecipherable at times. Young student Victor Frankenstein goes off to college and becomes obsessed with learning to create life. He succeeds, bringing life to a combination of human parts he has stitched together in imitation of a man. The creature disappears. Years later Victor discovers that the creature has gained language and emotions and is bent on murdering the family of the man who brought him to life. The creature asks Victor to make him a wife but Victor refuses. Much murder, anguish, and chasing around follow. For modern readers, the writing is difficult. Nevertheless, the germ of the story is compelling. A creature is given life and then abandoned by his creator, left on his own to determine how the world works. He is rejected by all humans and then rejected again when he asks for a companion to share his retched life. From that point of view it is a sad story. From Victor Frankenstein’s point of view, he has committed the “ultimate sin” – attempting to take over the powers of “God.” *Frankenstein* has influenced the writing of hundreds of other books from science fiction to anti-science polemics and is an important part of feminist and literary history. It is worth reading on that basis.