Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

My second reading of Mary Shelley's gothic tale was rather less grim than my first experience. Although dated by today's horror genre standards, it nonetheless remains an important and pivotal text in its exploration of ethics in science and is sometimes hailed as one of the earliest works of science fiction. Inspired by her father, the illustrious philosopher William Godwin, and influenced by her circle of Romanticists - Byron, Percy Shelley, Coleridge etc., Mary conceived a story that horrified and shocked its Victorian readers. The gifted young Victor Frankenstein lives a charmed existence until he begins dabbling in the forbidden arts of galvanism. Crafting a monstrous being from corpses, he infuses the spark of life and promptly flees in terror, leaving his abomination alone in a hostile world. The unnamed creation proceeds to avenge its miserable existence by wreaking havoc upon the head of its careless creator. The inexorable revenge reaches its climax in a chase to the Arctic circle, a location significant in its cultural importance of the time, a destination fit for the pioneering spirit of the Enlightenment.

The style of Frankenstein veers a little too close to sentimentalist melodrama for my liking, a considerable chunk of the narrative is occupied with Victor's melancholia to the point where it becomes almost like reading a teenager's live journal. Oh the horror, oh the crippling despair! I came to dread the murder of his loved ones for the inevitable passages that followed on his prostration; he's a delicate lad and spends a lot of time thrashing about on a sickbed. The pathos of the ostracised, sensitive monster and his personal tale at the centre of the novel remains the strongest section. It turns a scathing eye of contempt on the prejudice of mankind, encouraging the reader to sympathise with what film adaptations frequently portray as a cold-hearted brute. The cautionary on egotism and patriarchal overambition still rings true in a world dominated by aggressive capitalism, whilst the ethical questions relating to forbidden science transfer well to genetic engineering and cloning. This is a book still churning out countless re-imaginings and modernisations. Incredibly powerful reading but a tendency towards overstatement.

Rating: 2/5