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Frankenstein and the Critics: Includes unabridged FRANKENSTEIN 1818
“It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld my man completed ..."
The summer of 1816 was by all accounts a cold and wet one. After the April 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, global temperatures dropped and a rainy, monsoon-like drizzle settled in over Northern Europe. In a holiday villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, a young English poet and his lover, the guests of another poet, discouraged from outdoor pursuits, sat discussing the callousness of nature and speculating about the fashionable subject of "galvanism." Was it possible to reanimate a corpse?
The villa was Byron's. The other poet was Shelley. His fiancée, 19-year-old Mary Shelley (née Godwin), was in post-partum distress. Byron, inspired by a book of supernatural tales, suggested that each member of the party should write a ghost story to pass the time.
Initially, Mary Shelley didn’t feel up to Byron's challenge. Then, she said, she had a dream about a scientist who "galvanizes" life from the bones he finds in charnel houses: "I saw – with shut eyes, but acute mental vision – I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion."
Young Mary took the prize, with her tale of eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Frankenstein became a bestseller and a Gothic classic that still resonates with readers two centuries later.
But with like many great works of art, Frankenstein was initially misunderstood. The first reviews were decidedly mixed. An anonymous review in The Literary Panorama and National Register published June 1, 1818 dismissed Shelley’s work as ‘a feeble imitation of one that was very popular in its day.’ Other periodicals were kinder. Writing in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine on 20 March 1818, Walter Scott praised the unusual Gothic Romance as a “tale, though wild in incident, is written in plain and forcible English, without exhibiting that mixture of hyperbolical Germanisms with which tales of wonder are usually told.”
Frankenstein and the Critics presents a selection of the most prominent reviews from the time of Frankenstein’s publication. Also included is Mary Shelley’s uncensored 1818 text often labeled ‘Frankenstein 1818’ presented in its unabridged entirety. This is the original, 1818 text. In 1831, the more traditionally first "popular" edition in one volume appeared.This version of the story was heavily revised by Mary Shelley who was under pressure to make the story more conservative, and included a new, longer preface by her, presenting a somewhat embellished version of the genesis of the story. This edition tends to be the one most widely read now but many scholars prefer the 1818 text, arguing that it preserves the spirit of Shelley's original publication.
The summer of 1816 was by all accounts a cold and wet one. After the April 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, global temperatures dropped and a rainy, monsoon-like drizzle settled in over Northern Europe. In a holiday villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, a young English poet and his lover, the guests of another poet, discouraged from outdoor pursuits, sat discussing the callousness of nature and speculating about the fashionable subject of "galvanism." Was it possible to reanimate a corpse?
The villa was Byron's. The other poet was Shelley. His fiancée, 19-year-old Mary Shelley (née Godwin), was in post-partum distress. Byron, inspired by a book of supernatural tales, suggested that each member of the party should write a ghost story to pass the time.
Initially, Mary Shelley didn’t feel up to Byron's challenge. Then, she said, she had a dream about a scientist who "galvanizes" life from the bones he finds in charnel houses: "I saw – with shut eyes, but acute mental vision – I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion."
Young Mary took the prize, with her tale of eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Frankenstein became a bestseller and a Gothic classic that still resonates with readers two centuries later.
But with like many great works of art, Frankenstein was initially misunderstood. The first reviews were decidedly mixed. An anonymous review in The Literary Panorama and National Register published June 1, 1818 dismissed Shelley’s work as ‘a feeble imitation of one that was very popular in its day.’ Other periodicals were kinder. Writing in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine on 20 March 1818, Walter Scott praised the unusual Gothic Romance as a “tale, though wild in incident, is written in plain and forcible English, without exhibiting that mixture of hyperbolical Germanisms with which tales of wonder are usually told.”
Frankenstein and the Critics presents a selection of the most prominent reviews from the time of Frankenstein’s publication. Also included is Mary Shelley’s uncensored 1818 text often labeled ‘Frankenstein 1818’ presented in its unabridged entirety. This is the original, 1818 text. In 1831, the more traditionally first "popular" edition in one volume appeared.This version of the story was heavily revised by Mary Shelley who was under pressure to make the story more conservative, and included a new, longer preface by her, presenting a somewhat embellished version of the genesis of the story. This edition tends to be the one most widely read now but many scholars prefer the 1818 text, arguing that it preserves the spirit of Shelley's original publication.
211 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2016
About the author
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
2,341 books9,091 followersMary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, often known as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, travel writer, and editor of the works of her husband, Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. She was the daughter of the political philosopher William Godwin and the writer, philosopher, and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.
Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer in her own lifetime, though reviewers often missed the political edge to her novels. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. It was not until 1989, when Emily Sunstein published her prizewinning biography Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, that a full-length scholarly biography analyzing all of Shelley's letters, journals, and works within their historical context was published.
The well-meaning attempts of Mary Shelley's son and daughter-in-law to "Victorianise" her memory through the censoring of letters and biographical material contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in the later years of her life added to this impression.
The eclipse of Mary Shelley's reputation as a novelist and biographer meant that, until the last thirty years, most of her works remained out of print, obstructing a larger view of her achievement. She was seen as a one-novel author, if that. In recent decades, however, the republication of almost all her writings has stimulated a new recognition of its value. Her voracious reading habits and intensive study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated. Shelley's recognition of herself as an author has also been recognized; after Percy's death, she wrote about her authorial ambitions: "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea". Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.
Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer in her own lifetime, though reviewers often missed the political edge to her novels. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered only as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein. It was not until 1989, when Emily Sunstein published her prizewinning biography Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality, that a full-length scholarly biography analyzing all of Shelley's letters, journals, and works within their historical context was published.
The well-meaning attempts of Mary Shelley's son and daughter-in-law to "Victorianise" her memory through the censoring of letters and biographical material contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in the later years of her life added to this impression.
The eclipse of Mary Shelley's reputation as a novelist and biographer meant that, until the last thirty years, most of her works remained out of print, obstructing a larger view of her achievement. She was seen as a one-novel author, if that. In recent decades, however, the republication of almost all her writings has stimulated a new recognition of its value. Her voracious reading habits and intensive study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated. Shelley's recognition of herself as an author has also been recognized; after Percy's death, she wrote about her authorial ambitions: "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea". Scholars now consider Mary Shelley to be a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 1, 2019
Believe it or not, this was the first time I read Frankenstein. And I've also never seen one of the movie adaptions. Of course I'm aware of the pictures of the so-called monster from the movies, but I have to admit, that I was never that much interested in the story. But I was interested in Mary Shelley as a person and a writer, so I finally decided to pick it up. This edition of the famous book includes also eight reviews, published when the book first came out in 1818 and I found this especially interesting. I really liked what Mary Shelley discusses in this book. All the new possibilities mankind seemed to have at that time, all the new developments and the progress in human evolution society embraced without really knowing (or caring about?) what consequences there might occur out of it, all these topics are still relevant to date. Mary Shelley builds this short novel around a character who does things, because he is capable to do so and has to deal with the horrible consequences afterwards. There is a lot of guilt in this story, but also self-pity. But the main problem I had with this story is that Shelley uses it as a vehicle to take a look at certain topics, that are of importance. Unfortunately this story didn't work for me apart from the fact that there are passages that are page turners, but overall the plot holes have been too significant for me.
I would have rated the book itself with two stars, but because I'm rating this special edition with some bonus material I found really interesting, I rated it one star higher. And I still adore Mary Shelley for her attempt to write an ambitious story like this at age twenty.
#NovellasInNovember2019
#NonFictionNovember2019
#Voice
I would have rated the book itself with two stars, but because I'm rating this special edition with some bonus material I found really interesting, I rated it one star higher. And I still adore Mary Shelley for her attempt to write an ambitious story like this at age twenty.
#NovellasInNovember2019
#NonFictionNovember2019
#Voice
November 28, 2017
A great opportunity to see what contemporary reviewers thought of such a genre-defining work. Quite a few were scared and rejected Mary Shelley's outrageous ideas - though none actually knew she was the author at the time. Most interesting is Sir Walter Scott's review. Not only for being the most positive, but for analyzing what was most original and thought-provoking about Frankenstein: that the novel was not interested merely in using its supernatural/marvellous main event to provoke an effect, but to actually explore the consequences of this event. This could almost be used as a definition of Science Fiction, almost a century before it became actually considered as a literary genre, and provides yet another argument for considering Frankenstein as the birth of SF.
A caveat: the book consists of 9 reviews, 75% of the volume being a reprint of the 1818 text.
A caveat: the book consists of 9 reviews, 75% of the volume being a reprint of the 1818 text.
September 5, 2024
It was a tad wordy but a lot better than I thought it was going to be.
September 28, 2014
A great insight with Frankenstein image galleries and numerous links there are amazing illustrations and an original text. A great collector's item and fascinating for students. Enjoyed the read with informative information. I enjoyed this book that was gifted to me for an honest review.
October 29, 2016
This book is well done in its format, but overall it's a snore for me. It is worth reading, especially if you plan to read Dean Koontz' Frankenstein series as it's something of a "what if" concerning the doctor. Still, it's a little on the boring side in how dry and wordy it is.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews