Frankenstein, has anyone here read it?

I just finished it myself. I bought it years ago for a few dollars. I figured it was a classic and I couldn't go wrong for 4 bucks. I never got around to reading it till a few days ago.

Wow, just wow. Not even going to the modern relevance of genetic engineering, the book touches on the so many aspects of the human condition. Our capacity for great good, and great evil. That the desire to do one without wisdom can lead to the other. The dichotomy between man's ideal life, and that actually lived.

The most moving aspect of the book for me was the eloquent monster. Having been raised to think of Frankenstein as a bolt necked half brained brute I was shocked at the humanity of the beast in the actual book. His love of virtue and goodness. His sad downfall brought about by complete rejection based on his outward appearance despite his good heart, until he resents all that lives in joy.

For those who have not read the book, and still have the bolt necked moron as the image of Frankenstein's beast I give you some of the beast's last words before leaving humanity to die alone in the frozen arctic.

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No sympathy may I ever find. When I first sought it, it was the love of virtue, the feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed, that I wished to be participated. But now, that virtue has become to me a shadow, and that happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair, in what should I seek for sympathy? I am content to suffer alone, while my sufferings shall endure: when I die, I am well satisfied that abhorrence and opprobrium should load my memory. Once my fancy was soothed with dreams of virtue, of fame, and of enjoyment. Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings, who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of bringing forth. I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now vice has degraded me beneath the meanest animal. No crime, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine. When I call over the frightful catalogue of my deeds, I cannot believe that I am he whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am quite alone.

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When I was in college, I wrote a comparison contrast paper between Frankenstein and Brave New World. Great pieces of literature. The concept of man playing creator and the results really intrigued me.

A masterpiece of literature!

Haven't read it in years....

I'll have to go see if I can find my old copy.
I do recall it being a great book.
Thanks for the idea!

I read when I was about twelve, thinking I was reading the same story as the movie. I soon learned differently and only years later came to appreciate this tale of rejection and abandonment. None of the movies, even those fairly closet to the original have done it justice.

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Originally Posted by leadduck

I read when I was about twelve, thinking I was reading the same story as the movie. I soon learned differently and only years later came to appreciate this tale of rejection and abandonment. None of the movies, even those fairly closet to the original have done it justice.

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Amen.... but then again how many movies do anything justice?

Yeah, i watched the 1994 version with Robert De Niro as the monster (I read this was the most accurate depiction). While all movie adaptations have to cut corners here and there, I was disappointed in how they took away some of the most elegant speeches that are in the book, and how quickly the creature turned sour.

For me, that was really the heart of the novel, that this creation was turned into a monster, not by his creator, or by his mere existence, but by the cruelty and rejection of all those around him despite his mind and heart.

I've read it. It's an amazing book. I think most people who read it are surprised by how the author envisioned the creature and about how the real monster was created not through it's existance but through the cruelty of it's creator towards it.

It is indeed a great book. When people refer to Frankenstein, it's often pointed out to them that Frankenstein was not the monster, but the man who created the monster. But what I took from it, Frankenstein himself was the monster, without any understanding or sympathy for the being he created and his inhumane treatment and rejection of the creature. I found myself despising the man, Frankenstein.

It is a true classic. Sadly most people only know the Universal stereotype. I've read it several times and highly recommend it.

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Originally Posted by majurey

It is indeed a great book. When people refer to Frankenstein, it's often pointed out to them that Frankenstein was not the monster, but the man who created the monster. But what I took from it, Frankenstein himself was the monster, without any understanding or sympathy for the being he created and his inhumane treatment and rejection of the creature. I found myself despising the man, Frankenstein.

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It's interesting you should mention this. A lot of people don't take that away from it. The monster really was the more human of the two in many ways. The Hammer Frankenstein movies, in spite of their shortcomings, when taken as a whole do a fairly good job of depicting how Victor Frankenstein over time became not just inhumane but really inhuman as his obsession with creating life whilst destroying it in the process came to be his sole focus. He didn't even realise the broad swath of destruction he was cutting or how many people--including himself--he was hurting.

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Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Amen.... but then again how many movies do anything justice?

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Yes, Amen. (Although Watchmen came close).

I find it an amazing fact that she wrote this incredible story when she was a mere 20 years old.

Actually, she was 19 when she wrote it.

Thanks for the info - even more astonishing!

Hi,

IIRC, she wrote two (2) (or more ?) versions of the book. I know they were both available many moons ago (about ten years) when I worked in a book warehouse.

It is a very good read :)

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ