Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus (Oxford World's Classics) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, James Kinsley, M. K. Joseph ISBN: 0192834878 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.07
Rating: 5
Summary: More Relevant Today Than When First Written
Comment: Modern readers must jump through a number of hoops to enjoy this legendary novel. Written between 1816 and 1818, this is very much a novel of its era, and both language and ideas about plot are quite different from those of today. That aside, and unlike such contemporaries as Jane Austen, author Mary Shelly has never been greatly admired for her literary style, which is often awkward. But perhaps the biggest hurdle is that of our own expectations: while it certainly sent icy chills down the spines of 19th Century readers, FRANKENSTEIN is not a horror novel per se.
While Mary Shelly might have been stylistically weak, her story was not. Nothing like it had been written before, and the concept of a student endowing life upon a humanoid creature cobbled together from charnel house parts was unexpectedly shocking to the reading public. But even more shocking were the ideas that Shelly brought to the story. Having created this thing in his own image, what--if anything--does the creator owe it? And in posing this question, Shelly very deliberately raises her novel to an even more complex level: this is not merely the conflict of man and his creation, but also a questioning of God and his responsibility toward his creation.
In some respects, the book is written like the famous philosophical "dialogues" of the ancient world: a counterpoint of questions and arguments that do battle for the reader's acceptance. More than anything else, FRANKENSTEIN is a novel of ethics and of ideas about ideas, with Mary Shelly's themes arrayed in multiple layers throughout: God, self, society, science; responsibility to self, to society, to the things we bring to society, to the truth; life, integrity, and death--these are the ideas and issues that predominate the book, and any one expecting a horror novel pure and simple is out of luck.
Mary Shelly is a rare example of a writer whose ideas clearly outstrip her literary skill--but whose ideas are so powerful that they transcend her literary limitations and continue to resonate today. And indeed, as science continues to advance, it could not be otherwise so. Mary Shelly could not see into the future of DNA research, laboratory-grown tissues, test-tube babies and the like--but between 1816 and 1818 she wrote a book about the ethical dilemmas that swirl around them. And for all its flaws, FRANKENSTEIN is perhaps even more relevant today than it was over a hundred and fifty years ago.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Rating: 4
Summary: Frankenstein
Comment: When I started this book I did not expect to be able to read it without falling asleep in the middle, but when I did begin, I realized I couldn't put it down. My teacher assigned this book for my english class and I assumed it to be exactly like all the other ones: boring, containing lots of big words, and having a bunch of quizzes over it. I do indeed have a test to look forward to, but the book was definitely not boring and although it had many "big words" they were not undecipherable. The plot is well developed and filled with interesting descriptions and events, however, she leaves many loose ends, but I don't want to spoil the story. Unlike the classic movie, Shelley describes Frankenstein's creature (no... Frankenstein is the SCIENTIST not the monster) as an intellectual, (how else could she use her fancy words...? ^_^) and as the story progresses, I winced at Frankenstein's stupidity. Towards the end, one finds it hard to decide which individual to pity, because both have suffered so much. This novel is one that I truly enjoyed and I hope that you will like it as well.
Rating: 2
Summary: Over-rated and over-written
Comment: I read a condensed kiddies version of this when I was 8. I liked it better because it got to the point right away and lacked the increasingly dull indulgence in using zillions of paragraphs to describe things that don't really have anything to do with the story. It comes as a rather large surprise that this book is held in such high literary regard. Perhaps back in 18-something it may have been scary but by modern literary standards I'm afraid to say that Frankenstein is gibberish.
Perhaps this stems from the fact that Mary Shelley just wrote this for a laugh. She, Lord Byron and another pal were on Holiday in Switzerland and had a competition on who could write the scariest story. Shelly instantly came up with this, which is probably why it seems so uninspired, unfocused and meandering. Granted, the subtext is interesting enough, even to this day, but that's not what the book is about.
Shelley does go on a bit. Far, far too much time is wasted on set-up and over-description (her love of the Swiss countryside is evident in the dozens of pointless paragraphs describing the landscape) when it should really just be getting to the point. And then when the point finally arrives...it's underwritten. It feels like the book is nothing but filler. I mean when the monster/beast/wretch/daemon/creature is being created Shelly hardly writes anything. Where did Frankenstein get the parts? How did he put it all together? How did he actually bring it to life? She doesn't even have a full or half-full description of what the monster looked like. This could have been interesting in a macabre way but it's ignored.
And what's the deal with the monster going from not being able to speak or understand language to talking like some sort of Oxford professor within a few months? It's so far-fetched and hard to swallow. Tho there is sympathy to be had for the monster and doubt whenever Frankenstein badmouths him.
Another problem is the actual storytelling. The narration shifts 5 times in the course of this book and it becomes most annoying. I suppose this benefits the views of 3 different people but when they conflict in no way or contribute to the story what's the point? Frankenstein should have had tighter editing? For what it is it's a decent tragedy but NOT horror of any kind.
 |
Title: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Leonard Wolf ISBN: 0451523377 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
 |
Title: Frankenstein (Cliffs Notes) by Jeff Coghill ISBN: 0764585932 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson ISBN: 0486266885 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: February, 1991 List Price(USD): $1.00 |
 |
Title: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ISBN: 0486264645 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: August, 1990 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
 |
Title: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley ISBN: 0060929871 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
