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Title:
Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
First Published in: 1818
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, a Gothic
tale of terror. Technically an epistolary novel, told
through the letters of Walton, an English explorer in the
Arctic, the tale relates the exploits of Frankenstein, an
idealistic Genevan student of natural philosophy, who
discovers at the university of lngolstadt the secret of
imparting life to inanimate matter. Collecting bones from
charnel-houses, he constructs the semblance of a human
being and gives it life. The creature, endowed with
supernatural strength and size and terrible in
appearance, inspires loathing in whoever sees it. Lonely
and miserable (and educated in human emotion by studies
of Goethe, Plutarch, and Paradise Lost), it turns upon its
creator, and, failing to persuade him to provide a female
counterpart, eventually murders his brother, his friend
Clerval, and his bride Elizabeth. Frankenstein pursues it
to the Arctic to destroy it, but dies in the pursuit,
after relating his story to Walton. The monster declares
that Frankenstein will be its last victim, and disappears
to end its own life. This tale inspired many film
versions, and has been regarded as the origin of modern
science fiction, though it is also a version of the myth
of the Noble Savage, in which a nature
essentially good is corrupted by ill treatment. It is
also remarkable for -its description of nature, which
owes much to the Shelleys' admiration for Wordsworth,
Coleridge, and in particular the Ancient Mariner.
Text file provided by:
Project Gutenberg
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