Φλεγύας’s Reviews > Frankenstein: The 1818 Text > Status Update

This is taking me a considerable time to finish. The very many different POVs that are all narrated in the first person is, to me, tiresome. There was also a couple of dips in interest and seemed to last for a bit. Anyway, I'll say it again, the book is nothing like the movies. About 20% similarity, if that.

Arms now, pages before the halfway mark, we meet, for the first time, Frankenstein's monster. Who, not only can talk, but can utter sensible and moving arguments betraying mental acuity. The monster is depicted as unable to speak in the movies and adds to its misery and torment. Interested to see how this exchange with his creator will play out.

One would have thought that even by the rule of probabilities, at least one of the Frankenstein movies would have at least resembled to the actual text. However, the book reads as a different story, the only common ground being Victor Frankenstein and the allusion to the creation of the beast, which in the book might even be an internal personal affliction, an illusion of V. Frankenstein.

I kept rereading this chapter. A bit tiresome, the language. Harder to understand the exact meaning. I've also been very tired and battling migraines, which may partially be to blame.

Chapter 3, a few pages past its middle, is the first utterance of the name Frankenstein. And chapter 3 is absolutely wonderfully written. The various emotional vacillations are masterfully presented and read as natural evolutions of the young character's growth.

You get to the end of chapter two and then you realise that this might be Frankenstein indeed. However, this is written a lot more like the Re-Animator than any Frankenstein movie you've ever seen. It's very different from what one would expect it to be based on the movies. I'm enjoying this.

Had I read this first chapter without knowing which book it belonged to, never in a billion years would I have guessed Frankenstein. The recounting tone and the journey to Antarctica, as well as the human faults discussed, are more reminiscent of Lovecraft or Poe. However, not as successful with the torment and desire, anxiety and everything else trademarked by the aforementioned two.