Frankenstein

Finally!


Blurb: One of the best-known horror stories ever. Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, has a great ambition: to create intelligent life. But when his creature first stirs, he realizes he has made a monster. A monster which, abandoned by its maker and shunned by everyone who sees it, dogs Dr Frankenstein with murder and horrors to the very ends of the earth . . .

Thoughts: I resent that this is defined as a horror story. That a creature is a 'horror' because it is shunned and sent to desperation I think is a tragedy not a horror story. It brought up so many questions about our need for acceptance and our rejection of difference. I found myself having no sympathy whatsoever for Frankenstein himself, only the creature. So in many ways I did not like the angle of the book. There were passages showing 'sympathy for the devil' but I wanted more from the creature's angle. Perhaps it's because I saw Danny Boyle's production of it, which is very much exploring the creature's point of view, before reading the book. (And perhaps also because the creature was played by Benedict Cumberbatch!) So I really loved the passages of interaction between the creature and his maker and hearing his story, but didn't like so much the sections of Frankenstein fleeing his creation - which I think somewhat requires fear of the creature to fully enjoy and appreciate. However the tension and passion of some of the scenes really was amazing:


All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life?


Yeah - you tell him!