Frankenstein

By (author) Shelley Mary
Short description/annotation:
The book that translated the dark and stormy ethos of the gothic novel into the foundation for the tale of modern science fiction, now freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Clothbound Editions line.
Description:
The book that translated the dark and stormy ethos of the gothic novel into the foundation for the tale of modern science fiction, now freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Clothbound Editions line. Dr. Victor Frankenstein never considers the consequences of his obsession. In his zeal to understand and harness the secret of life, he neglects his family and friends, isolates himself from the world, and ignores his own health. For years, he labors to create a new race of intelligent beings. He spends his nights scrounging human and animal body parts from graveyards, slaughterhouses, and hospital dissection rooms. By day he experiments in his secret laboratory, learning from his mistakes and perfecting the creature who, he believes, will worship him as a god. But this hubris is not his only sin. When he succeeds, Frankenstein is horrified by the ugly brutishness of the patchwork being he has brought to life. Rather than exult in his accomplishment, he runs from it, retreating to the comfort of long-neglected friends and family. Frankenstein has, indeed, created a monster, not by animating dead flesh but by abandoning his creation and planting within it the seeds of rage and loneliness. Now, the monster is out for revenge.
Review quote:
The first novel of the scientific revolution and, incidentally, the first novel of science fiction
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Frankenstein appeals to something very primal, but it''s also about profound things, the very nature of life and death and birth
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How many fictional characters have made the great leap from literature to mythology; how many creatures of sheer language have stepped from the rhythms of their author''s idiosyncratic voices into what might be called a collective cultural consciousness?
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The greatest novel of the Romantic movement
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Mary Shelley more than made a name for herself and thrived without a formal education, becoming a trailblazing female writer in a genre still dominated by men today
Biographical note:
Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was the author of five novels and numerous works of short fiction, all steeped in the ideology of the early 19th-century British Romantic era and its progressive themes.