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Frankenstein: The True Story
The chilling tale of the doctor who creates life out of death is now retold, charged with more terror and suspense than ever before. Written especially for the Universal Studios television presentation, “ The True Story” is a symbolic portrayal of men and women caught in a nightmare of their own making.
Paperback
First published June 1, 1973
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About the author
Christopher Isherwood
165 books1,520 followersEnglish-born American writer Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood portrayed Berlin in the early 1930s in his best known works, such as
Goodbye to Berlin
(1939), the basis for the musical
Cabaret
(1966). Isherwood was a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist.
With W.H. Auden he wrote three plays— The Dog Beneath the Skin (1932), The Ascent of F6 (1936), and On the Frontier (1938). Isherwood tells the story in his first autobiography, Lions and Shadows .
After Isherwood wrote joke answers on his second-year exams, Cambridge University in 1925 asked him to leave. He briefly attended medical school and progressed with his first two novels, All the Conspirators (1928) and The Memorial (1932). In 1930, he moved to Berlin, where he taught English, dabbled in Communism, and enthusiastically explored his homosexuality. His experiences provided the material for Mister Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1938), still his most famous book.
In Berlin in 1932, he also began an important relationship with Heinz Neddermeyer, a young German with whom he fled the Nazis in 1933. England refused entry to Neddermeyer on his second visit in 1934, and the pair moved restlessly about Europe until the Gestapo arrested Neddermeyer in May 1937 and then finally separated them.
In 1938, Isherwood sailed with Auden to China to write Journey to a War (1939), about the Sino-Japanese conflict. They returned to England and Isherwood went on to Hollywood to look for movie-writing work. He also became a disciple of the Ramakrishna monk, Swami Prabhavananda, head of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. He decided not to take monastic vows, but he remained a Hindu for the rest of his life, serving, praying, and lecturing in the temple every week and writing a biography, Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965).
In 1945, Isherwood published Prater Violet, fictionalizing his first movie writing job in London in 1933-1934. In Hollywood, he spent the start of the 1950s fighting his way free of a destructive five-year affair with an attractive and undisciplined American photographer, William Caskey. Caskey took the photographs for Isherwood’s travel book about South America, The Condor and The Cows (1947). Isherwood’s sixth novel, The World in the Evening (1954), written mostly during this period, was less successful than earlier ones.
In 1953, he fell in love with Don Bachardy, an eighteen-year-old college student born and raised in Los Angeles. They were to remain together until Isherwood’s death. In 1961, Isherwood and completed the final revisions to his new novel Down There on a Visit (1962). Their relationship nearly ended in 1963, and Isherwood moved out of their Santa Monica house. This dark period underpins Isherwood’s masterpiece A Single Man (1964).
Isherwood wrote another novel, A Meeting by the River (1967), about two brothers, but he gave up writing fiction and turned entirely to autobiography. In Kathleen and Frank (1971), he drew on the letters and diaries of his parents. In Christopher and His Kind (1976), he returned to the 1930s to tell, as a publicly avowed homosexual, the real story of his life in Berlin and his wanderings with Heinz Neddermeyer. The book made him a hero of gay liberation and a national celebrity all over again but now in his true, political and personal identity.
With W.H. Auden he wrote three plays— The Dog Beneath the Skin (1932), The Ascent of F6 (1936), and On the Frontier (1938). Isherwood tells the story in his first autobiography, Lions and Shadows .
After Isherwood wrote joke answers on his second-year exams, Cambridge University in 1925 asked him to leave. He briefly attended medical school and progressed with his first two novels, All the Conspirators (1928) and The Memorial (1932). In 1930, he moved to Berlin, where he taught English, dabbled in Communism, and enthusiastically explored his homosexuality. His experiences provided the material for Mister Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1938), still his most famous book.
In Berlin in 1932, he also began an important relationship with Heinz Neddermeyer, a young German with whom he fled the Nazis in 1933. England refused entry to Neddermeyer on his second visit in 1934, and the pair moved restlessly about Europe until the Gestapo arrested Neddermeyer in May 1937 and then finally separated them.
In 1938, Isherwood sailed with Auden to China to write Journey to a War (1939), about the Sino-Japanese conflict. They returned to England and Isherwood went on to Hollywood to look for movie-writing work. He also became a disciple of the Ramakrishna monk, Swami Prabhavananda, head of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. He decided not to take monastic vows, but he remained a Hindu for the rest of his life, serving, praying, and lecturing in the temple every week and writing a biography, Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965).
In 1945, Isherwood published Prater Violet, fictionalizing his first movie writing job in London in 1933-1934. In Hollywood, he spent the start of the 1950s fighting his way free of a destructive five-year affair with an attractive and undisciplined American photographer, William Caskey. Caskey took the photographs for Isherwood’s travel book about South America, The Condor and The Cows (1947). Isherwood’s sixth novel, The World in the Evening (1954), written mostly during this period, was less successful than earlier ones.
In 1953, he fell in love with Don Bachardy, an eighteen-year-old college student born and raised in Los Angeles. They were to remain together until Isherwood’s death. In 1961, Isherwood and completed the final revisions to his new novel Down There on a Visit (1962). Their relationship nearly ended in 1963, and Isherwood moved out of their Santa Monica house. This dark period underpins Isherwood’s masterpiece A Single Man (1964).
Isherwood wrote another novel, A Meeting by the River (1967), about two brothers, but he gave up writing fiction and turned entirely to autobiography. In Kathleen and Frank (1971), he drew on the letters and diaries of his parents. In Christopher and His Kind (1976), he returned to the 1930s to tell, as a publicly avowed homosexual, the real story of his life in Berlin and his wanderings with Heinz Neddermeyer. The book made him a hero of gay liberation and a national celebrity all over again but now in his true, political and personal identity.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 2, 2014
Technically, it's a teleplay, but Isherwood is a co-author so I had to read it. The fun part of this, is that my Mom watched the miniseries as a kid and talked about how much she loved it all the time. Then as an adult, I happened to become a huge fan of Christopher Isherwood. Then, randomly, I discover that he co-wrote this piece with his partner, Don Bachardy. It made it a nostalgic and fun read in many ways. To me, this didn't read like something Chris wrote or even conceived of. It feels born of a conversation or a shared idea. It feels much more like someone else's story that Chris touched up. And to think that he did so with the man he loved makes it kinda cool, and very, very sweet. :)
So, gushing done, the story is a very fun adaptation. Thoughtful as well. To imagine the creature as something beautiful that became flawed fits with Victor's arrogance better than Shelly's notion he would be immediately repulsed by his creation. I know she was 15 and idealistic, and that the original story had to exist for this riff to even have occurred to anyone, but I love the themes it draws out. It's a breath cheesy in places, but if you get past the melodramatic whiffs, it's a fairly philosophical take on the story. Fun, swift, and surprisingly thought provoking read. :)
So, gushing done, the story is a very fun adaptation. Thoughtful as well. To imagine the creature as something beautiful that became flawed fits with Victor's arrogance better than Shelly's notion he would be immediately repulsed by his creation. I know she was 15 and idealistic, and that the original story had to exist for this riff to even have occurred to anyone, but I love the themes it draws out. It's a breath cheesy in places, but if you get past the melodramatic whiffs, it's a fairly philosophical take on the story. Fun, swift, and surprisingly thought provoking read. :)
September 25, 2025
When I ordered this book, I thought it was a novelization of the tv movie. It's actually the teleplay.
I saw the movie as a child, and I rewatched it recently -- although I think the version I saw was an edited version because the original may have been in more than one part.
The movie is a creative take on the "Frankenstein" story -- so much better than Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (which I always thought was an obnoxious title because it's clearly not Mary Shelley's, but Branagh's bastardization of it). In the "True Story" film, the "Monster" is not hideous when it is created, but is, rather, beautiful. It only becomes ugly because the process by which it was created was imperfect. While obviously changing the story from the original novel, the movie included elements from the original novel, including a ship voyage to the north, and the creation of a "bride".
This book will be of interest to any fans of the movie. While most of it is consistent with the movie, there were changes from the teleplay to the movie, and I think those changes were beneficial.
I saw the movie as a child, and I rewatched it recently -- although I think the version I saw was an edited version because the original may have been in more than one part.
The movie is a creative take on the "Frankenstein" story -- so much better than Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (which I always thought was an obnoxious title because it's clearly not Mary Shelley's, but Branagh's bastardization of it). In the "True Story" film, the "Monster" is not hideous when it is created, but is, rather, beautiful. It only becomes ugly because the process by which it was created was imperfect. While obviously changing the story from the original novel, the movie included elements from the original novel, including a ship voyage to the north, and the creation of a "bride".
This book will be of interest to any fans of the movie. While most of it is consistent with the movie, there were changes from the teleplay to the movie, and I think those changes were beneficial.
January 26, 2019
This is the original screenplay for the 2-part miniseries. Several changes were made to the script prior to filming, so reading how it might have been filmed was quite interesting. The screenplay and miniseries are both also quite different from Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein"....in some ways an improvement over the novel and less drawn-out.
August 3, 2014
The ending is asdfghjkl. It's absolutely superb. I loved this retelling of such an amazing story. I wasn't much for the original version because I didn't fell like the characters were real, but with this I felt an immense closeness with each and every character. I'll probably reread this later. Highly recommend to read.
October 20, 2014
I haven't seen the movie that was filmed from this (though I've read that the writers published this because they were so unhappy with the film version, so maybe that's okay) but it was hard to stop reading this script once you got started.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews