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Frankenstein
Presents the story of an obsessive scientist who creates a living being from the parts of dead bodies who learns to loathe himself and his creator as he develops a mind of his own.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1818
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12 people want to read
About the author
Philip Wilkinson
241 books31 followersPhilip Wilkinson (born 1955) is the author of non-fiction books for children and adults. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He worked as an editor prior to becoming an author.
He specializes in works on history, the arts, religion, and architecture and has written over forty titles.
He specializes in works on history, the arts, religion, and architecture and has written over forty titles.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 28, 2023
One of the better books I’ve read for class ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
March 29, 2017
The eloquence and wretchedness of The Creature blew my mind. Worth reading for that portion alone. Also of interest to me is that he teaches himself to read and quotes from three classic works: The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Paradise Lost by John Milton, and Plutarch's Lives.
Standard novels edition (1831). I am still interested in comparing it to the original 1818 text.
Standard novels edition (1831). I am still interested in comparing it to the original 1818 text.
December 23, 2012
I just read this book even though I heard about it many years ago. I loved it, because this kind of books drive me to think in every sentence I read. It is full of emotions which are in everybody's inside. I loved the monster and Elizabeth, I hated Frankenstein.
March 9, 2015
This was different than anything else I have ever read and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
April 4, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know what to expect and thought I wouldn't care for it, but I did:
July 21, 2008
Not at all what I expected! Where did the green skin and bolts on the sides of the neck come from? Where was the castle? Where was the romance? The doctor never shouts, "IT'S ALIVE!" The monster's name wasn't even Frankenstein! Did I miss something? What is going on!?
November 11, 2024
This was one of the books that stayed in my mind for a while. Amazing writing, and i loved the edition with additional historical context. I enjoyed reading this and loved the story progression. The monsters journey made me so emotional and it brings up so many questions about what makes one human. Amazing!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2020
Oh, Frankenstein. I loved everything that you stood for and hated what you actually were. Gothic fiction should have been my long lost soul mate. It pains me to read you, Frankenstein. A genre that combines romance, horror, and mystery should have been a perfect fit but reading it was such a bore. It is beautiful and enjoyable to read the way that Victor dictates his feelings in the text, but he is always whining, and a first person account of a whiney tragic hero does not draw sympathy from me.
Victor, as a character, is an issue for this novel. Why, when the creature says that he will be with Victor on his wedding night, does Victor attribute this meaning towards the creature killing Victor after he marries Elizabeth? The creature, sentences earlier, had promised to continue bringing misery to Victor until Victor would curse the sun that gazes on his misery. It seemed so evident to me that Elizabeth would be murdered on their wedding night.
Victor is an unlikable character. Before he dies, he does not consider himself to blame for his misfortune and the deaths of those he loved, and says that to have created a second creature would have been a crime against humanity. That was figuratively and literally the nail in the coffin for me every liking Victor. Up to that point Victor made some poor decisions and was not owing up to the murders but him shaking off any blame was hilarious. It is entirely his fault for creating the creature, shunning it, and then destroying the female creature. As if, two creatures would be too much.
To add a second nail to the coffin, the creature laments that he is to blame and says that Victor was “the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men”. If anything, Victor is a coward and his vices are too many for me to even consider him a tragic hero and more of a lousy antihero. To show how little I cared for Victor, by the end of the novel when he was chasing the creature on the ice, I was more concerned for the dogs pulling Victor’s sleigh than for Victor. I even felt more sympathetic for the creature than Victor.
The other issue I found was that the creature’s vendetta against Victor seems irrational. One of his reasons is the way that mankind has rebuked him. As smart as the creature is, he should have pieced together that the reason behind mankind hating him was because of his appearance. Not once does the creature communicate with any human, besides Victor, to explain his situation and stop the beatings. It seems that it was done this way for the convenience of providing the creature with a reason behind his fury.
I had been partly enjoying the novel up to the part before the creature spoke towards Victor for the first time. At that point, I had enjoyed the mystery and the gloomy atmosphere of it all. After that, the criticisms that I mentioned above emerged. Of the specific positives in this novel, the biggest lies in my idealized version of what this novel could have been; a truly tragic hero that I could have sympathized with, and less with the creature. The other positives in this novel include the depiction of Safie, Victor seeing the dead in his sleep, the arctic environment, and Elizabeth as a character.
In the end, I will leave the rating at 2 stars. I like Shelley's writing style and the settings in Frankenstein. I do not feel that I disliked the majority of it to warrant a 1 star rating.
Update 9 June 2019
With the adoption of my new rating system, a two star rating is befitting. The original rating and review conform to the new rating system.
September 8, 2019
Update
I have thought of lowering the rating to one star because of the minute amount of segments I enjoyed in comparison to the sections I did not enjoy. However, a rating for this book would be closer to 1.5 stars and rounded to two stars because of the sections that I liked, that are listed in the original section of my review. One section I did not include as liking was Victor's death, the beasts' arrival to the bed, and the ending with the beasts' jump into the ocean.
Victor, as a character, is an issue for this novel. Why, when the creature says that he will be with Victor on his wedding night, does Victor attribute this meaning towards the creature killing Victor after he marries Elizabeth? The creature, sentences earlier, had promised to continue bringing misery to Victor until Victor would curse the sun that gazes on his misery. It seemed so evident to me that Elizabeth would be murdered on their wedding night.
Victor is an unlikable character. Before he dies, he does not consider himself to blame for his misfortune and the deaths of those he loved, and says that to have created a second creature would have been a crime against humanity. That was figuratively and literally the nail in the coffin for me every liking Victor. Up to that point Victor made some poor decisions and was not owing up to the murders but him shaking off any blame was hilarious. It is entirely his fault for creating the creature, shunning it, and then destroying the female creature. As if, two creatures would be too much.
To add a second nail to the coffin, the creature laments that he is to blame and says that Victor was “the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men”. If anything, Victor is a coward and his vices are too many for me to even consider him a tragic hero and more of a lousy antihero. To show how little I cared for Victor, by the end of the novel when he was chasing the creature on the ice, I was more concerned for the dogs pulling Victor’s sleigh than for Victor. I even felt more sympathetic for the creature than Victor.
The other issue I found was that the creature’s vendetta against Victor seems irrational. One of his reasons is the way that mankind has rebuked him. As smart as the creature is, he should have pieced together that the reason behind mankind hating him was because of his appearance. Not once does the creature communicate with any human, besides Victor, to explain his situation and stop the beatings. It seems that it was done this way for the convenience of providing the creature with a reason behind his fury.
I had been partly enjoying the novel up to the part before the creature spoke towards Victor for the first time. At that point, I had enjoyed the mystery and the gloomy atmosphere of it all. After that, the criticisms that I mentioned above emerged. Of the specific positives in this novel, the biggest lies in my idealized version of what this novel could have been; a truly tragic hero that I could have sympathized with, and less with the creature. The other positives in this novel include the depiction of Safie, Victor seeing the dead in his sleep, the arctic environment, and Elizabeth as a character.
In the end, I will leave the rating at 2 stars. I like Shelley's writing style and the settings in Frankenstein. I do not feel that I disliked the majority of it to warrant a 1 star rating.
Update 9 June 2019
With the adoption of my new rating system, a two star rating is befitting. The original rating and review conform to the new rating system.
September 8, 2019
Update
I have thought of lowering the rating to one star because of the minute amount of segments I enjoyed in comparison to the sections I did not enjoy. However, a rating for this book would be closer to 1.5 stars and rounded to two stars because of the sections that I liked, that are listed in the original section of my review. One section I did not include as liking was Victor's death, the beasts' arrival to the bed, and the ending with the beasts' jump into the ocean.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 29, 2025
(First posted October 1, 2024)
Great, spine-chilling horror classic. It's a fantastic story that paved the way for many modern pieces of horror and thrillers. The conflict of this book (man vs. monster) is something that has always existed, and it's a book that will thrill you with an ending that will crush your soul. For being over 300 years old, it still holds up for modern audiences well. There are parts that drag on though, particularly toward the middle. But overall a good book to read during spooky season, gets a strong 8/10. This is a nice edition of a classic story as well, and it made wish DK gave more classic books this treatment.
Great, spine-chilling horror classic. It's a fantastic story that paved the way for many modern pieces of horror and thrillers. The conflict of this book (man vs. monster) is something that has always existed, and it's a book that will thrill you with an ending that will crush your soul. For being over 300 years old, it still holds up for modern audiences well. There are parts that drag on though, particularly toward the middle. But overall a good book to read during spooky season, gets a strong 8/10. This is a nice edition of a classic story as well, and it made wish DK gave more classic books this treatment.
August 8, 2017
[3.5]
The notes and little extra excerpts helped to put things into perspective, but the Monster is still my favorite character, and I don't think that was the intention.
The speeches made were very powerful though, and this book really gets me thinking. I learn something new each time I read it.
The notes and little extra excerpts helped to put things into perspective, but the Monster is still my favorite character, and I don't think that was the intention.
The speeches made were very powerful though, and this book really gets me thinking. I learn something new each time I read it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews