Frankenstein

Author: Mary Shelley
Reviewer: Book Girl

This book was very different than what I was expecting.  I came to it prepared to be completely horrified at how Frankenstein kills people.  Instead, the beginning of the book opens with a sea captain's letters to his sister as he navigates the frozen arctic tundra. However, a crazy looking man by the name of Victor Frankenstein comes to his ship on a dogsled across the ice.  Then, this new guy starts basically telling the story of his life, which is all very fine and jolly.  Things start to get interesting when he talks about wanting to research how the very life is given to living things.  He decides to create his own human, and makes it out of parts of dead bodies (ugh!) which he then shocks to life.  When he leaves the room and comes back, the monster is gone.  Then he returns to his home and finds out that his younger brother has been killed, a good friend of the family is accused of the crime, and he discovers his monster is responsible.  Thus, Victor tells the story of his quest to rid the world of the monster once and for all.

As for how the reading of the actual book went, it was pretty slow going.  I read the original version of the story, and everyone talks in a very flowery manner.  Also, the author seems very prejudiced towards peasants and people who are not very high in society.  Well, that was gist I got, because every time the narrator got to know peasants, he found out that they were orphaned from dukes and duchesses or exiled from their home country.  Overall I consider the book a good read, but the flowery bits can get rather dull.