Thursday 8 June 2017

- 24 - Frankenstein



Author:
Mary Shelly

Published:
1818

Genre:
Classics, Horror, Fiction

297 pages [German edition]
273 pages [English edition]



I decided that I wanted to read some old, ‘classic’ books some time ago…
… and I decided to finally start with this one. :D

I read this book in German because I feel like otherwise I would have had to look up every second word. xD
I don’t think that there is a big difference between the translation and the original; I just wanted to let you know. ^^

I am on holiday from 6th until 11th June.
I hope that the technique isn't going to bully me and that this post still can be uploaded on Thursday.
So, if you can read this on Thursday, be proud of me and enjoy it. <3

Content

*I assume that every one of you at least knows this book’s content roughly, but I still am going to sum it up briefly.*

Victor Frankenstein is a young scientist who works on finding the life’s source.
As soon as he succeeds he sets himself a new target: 
Creating his own creature

While working on this horrible project the young scientist himself is losing more and more of his own humanity…
… we all know horrible the result of the scientist’s efforts:

Frankenstein’s Monster

Review

I actually was very surprised by this book!

I expected a scary story about a people-killing, heart- and merciless creature…
… but it turned out to be completely different.

The monster is portrayed as a poor, pitiable person who struggles with loneliness and finding his place in the world. The reader sees the event out of the monster’s view, which I really, really like. :3

I personally found the monster more likeable than Frankenstein himself. xD
He is so tearful and irresponsible!
Once his monster comes alive and he realizes that it isn’t the way he imagined it to be, he denies its existence instead of dealing with this ‘problem’.

… At the same time I can’t really hate him because I personally think that he has a serious physical illness.
… Buuuuut at the same time I hate him again because he is so damn arrogant and irresponsible. xD

The thing I liked best about this book is its language!
Yes, it is very complicated and twisted, that’s true. And I also had to read some sentences for five times to finally understand them… 

BUT I personally think that the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones!
The language just is so pretty!

After some sentences I had to close the book and repeat what I just had read in my head because I found it so awesome, that I didn’t immediately want to forget it!
[My best friend also read ‘Frankenstein’ and she hated its language a lot. So you see, as always, there are millions of different opinions. xD]

After reading the first fifty pages of ‘Frankenstein’ I wasn’t sure whether I bought the right book or not. Within these pages Frankenstein isn’t even mentioned.
These pages are about a man who leads an exploration mission to the North Pole.
There is no narrator… we only read the letters the explorer sends to his sister and her replies.
This leads me to another thing I really like about this book: its point of view

Once the mentioned explorer meets Frankenstein the man starts to tell him his story. Later Victor tells the explorer a story his monster had told him before, but again: the reader only gets to know this by reading the explorer’s letters to his sister.

I really love this! It makes this book different from others.

One negative thing I want to say about this book is that there isn’t much action.
There sometimes are ten pages in a row where literally nothing happens. xD

This doesn’t bother me at all but you maybe have a problem with this. :o

The last thing I want to say about this book is a thing which impressed me a lot.
This book is so old [nearly 200 years] and it was written by a WOMAN!

This is incredible!

During a time where woman weren’t allowed to do anything, they had no rights and they were controlled by their fathers and brothers and later by their husbands…
… Mary Shelly decides to write an effing book about somebody with a mental illness creating a monster! DoubleV T F

She first published this book anonymously because of the woman’s position in this time.
I stalked her a bit and I actually am a little fangirl of hers now.

There are many great things I would like to tell you about her, but I don’t want to bore you…
… there only is one thing I HAVE to mention. She was a member of sociocritical vegetarianism.

She was a freaking vegetarian?! In freaking 18 hundred?!
That’s so cool! I can’t put my amazement into words! xD

I just remembered one really last thing which I want to talk about.

I don’t think that this book belongs to the ‘horror’-genre. I would rather call it a very sad story or novel because the ‘evil’ monster isn’t as evil anymore if you look at it more closely. ^^

My recommendation

I would recommend this book to everyone who searches for an old, classic book to read. The language is pretty and the narrative style is very good!

If you start reading this book you definitely should be aware of the fact that there isn’t much action or suspense.

Mary Shelly focuses on describing the character’s thoughts and feelings instead of bloody fights or anything. ^^

Hugs,
leonie
=^.^=


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