Customer Reviews
A Long Day's Journey into Horror - By: Donald Mitchell, 31 Aug 2004 
If you like horror, you owe it to yourself to read this book from the beginnings of the genre. You will enjoy seeing the themesin Frankenstein repeatedin other horror novels that you will readin the future. The book & the movie have essentially nothingin common, so assume that you do not know the story yet if you have only seen the movie.
If you do not like horror, you probably won't like the book very much at all.
The story opensin the frozen Arctic wastes during an sea-going expedition to find a passage through the ice to the East. Aboard the ship after a strange meeting, Frankenstein tells his story. As a young man he wanted to make a splashin the sciences, & invented a way to create life. Having done so, he became estranged from his new being with significant consequences for Frankenstein & his creation. The two interact closely throughout the book, like twin brothersin one sense & like Creator & creationin another sense.
This book presents significant challenges to the reader. Like many books that relate to scientific or quasi-scientific topics from long ago, Frankenstein seems highly outmoded to the modern reader. In the era of psychological knowledge, the development of moods & characterin the book will also seem primitive to many. A further drawback is that this novel takes a long time to develop each of its points (even after the eventual action is totally foreshadowedin unmistakeable terms), so patience is required as layer after layer of atmosphere & thought are applied to create a complex, composite picture. Finally, the structure of the novel is unusual, with layers of narration applied to layers of narration, creating a feeling of looking at never-ending mirror images.
So, you may ask, why should someone read Frankenstein? My personal feeling is that there are two timelessly rewarding aspects to the book that well reward the reader (despite the drawbacks described above). Either is sufficient to please you. First, the book raises wonderful ethical issues about the responsibilities of science & the scientist towards the results of scientific endeavors. These issues are as up-to-date now as they were when the book was written. Those who developed atomic weapons & biotechnology tools appear to have given little more thought to what comes next than Frankenstein did toward his creation. Second, the moods that are built upin the reader by the book are extremely vivid & powerful. The artistry of this book can serve as a guide for novelists for centuries to come,in showing how much the reader can be deeply engaged by the circumstances of the characters.
Why, then, did I grade the book at three stars instead of five? Few will fail to be annoyed by the scientific awkwardness of the story, & that is a definite drawback. Also, only the most dedicated students of style will avoid feeling like the book moves & develops its story too slowly. Less is morein novels. In this case, more is less.
I cannot help but comment that this book is perhaps the finest example of appearances being deceiving that existsin literature. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a close competitorin this regard, but that fine work definite has to fall behind Frankenstein. In this book, beings of physical beauty actin inhumane, ugly ways. Beings of great ugliness actin beautiful ways. The same being may actin both ways,in different circumstances. Looks are deceiving, & our perceptions are flawed even when our attention is fixed. If the characters could have overcome this form of stalled thinking, the horror would have been averted. So the lesson is that the misperceptions we aim at others rebound (like a reflectionin a mirror) right back onto us.
If you have not yet read Paradise Lost, Frankenstein is a good excuse to read that poem. The development of the storyin Frankenstein assumes a knowledge of that story about Satan leading a rebellion against God & being dispossessed into Hell.
After you have had a chance to absorb & appreciate the nice issues this book raises, ask yourself where youin your life are acting without sufficiently considering the implications of your actions. Then, commence to examine those potential consequences. You should be able to create more good resultsin this way, & take more comfortin what you are doing. Both will be excellent rewards for your introspection.
A good selection - By: B. Tovey, 02 Dec 2002 
C18th Gothic novels are always worth a read for anyone interestedin the macabre, the fantastic, or the downright gruesome, & this selection makes excellent reading. Having said that, if you're looking for a good critical edition this isn't the book for you - the critical apparatus is pretty minimal. There are better editions of Frankenstein out there, of course, but even if you already have one, this is worth it for the other three novels it contains.
