Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The story of Victor Frankenstein and of the monstrous creation he created has held readers spellbound ever since it was published almost two centuries ago. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting horror; but on a more profound level, it offers searching illumination of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a monster brought to life in an alien world, ever more desperately attempting to escape the torture of his solitude. A novel of hallucinatory intensity, Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination. (Taken from back cover)

Another book for English class, but I didn't like Frankenstein as much as some of the other books I've read for this course. I've seen the 1931 movie version, and I thought the book would be somewhat similar to that, but I was completely wrong. I was also a little disappointed because in the book there's no creepy laboratory, no Igor, no great scene where Dr. Frankenstein shouts, "He's alive!" Instead, the process of the creating the monster is described very vaguely, and the monster is still horrifyingly ugly, but now has the capability of eloquent speech. I was expecting him to be grunting and growling, but instead we have this being who is almost human, besides physical apperance of course. So the book was not what I expected at all. Besides losing my faith in pop culture to accurately depict great works of literature in movies (just kidding), the book was okay. Not amazing, but not too too bad. There was a lot of description of nature, which served as pathetic fallacy (look at my great knowledge of literary techniques!), but still got annoying. Dr. Frankenstein was also an annoying character; he felt so guilty for creating the monster, that he was depressed the whole time. Who wants to read a book about the main character moaning and complaining the whole time? Besides some things I didn't like, I was glad to get a chance to read Frankenstein, because it is a classic, and shed some misconceptions I had about the book/movie.

5 out of 10.