Book Forty-Seven of the Book-a-Week QuestFrankenstein
by Mary Shelley (1818)
Well, as I was told, this book certainly isn't what you'd expect insomuch as film and television have played up the "monster" aspect to the nth degree and the book, while certainly still containing a monster, focuses on the human who created the creature.
And it's probably because of the focus on the creator that the book is a snoozefest. This was a rough one to get through. And while I made it through the last 100 pages in a day, it was a struggle. This is one of those books where you read the first two sentences of a paragraph, then slip into an unconscious mind-wandering state until you hit the last sentence, when you realize you weren't paying the least bit of attention to anything that came before it...and you're forced to re-read it all again. That happened every single chapter for seemingly every third paragraph.
And it just seemed kinda ludicrous in this day and age, having seen various presentations of Frankenstein's Monster, to have this "monster" manage to speak perfect eloquent English. I realize that shouldn't be a criticism of the book, per se, for it was that "modern media" that bastardized the original novel, but it just made the premise seem a little odd.
Oh, well...I can say I read it now...and I'll never pick it up again.
And it's probably because of the focus on the creator that the book is a snoozefest. This was a rough one to get through. And while I made it through the last 100 pages in a day, it was a struggle. This is one of those books where you read the first two sentences of a paragraph, then slip into an unconscious mind-wandering state until you hit the last sentence, when you realize you weren't paying the least bit of attention to anything that came before it...and you're forced to re-read it all again. That happened every single chapter for seemingly every third paragraph.
And it just seemed kinda ludicrous in this day and age, having seen various presentations of Frankenstein's Monster, to have this "monster" manage to speak perfect eloquent English. I realize that shouldn't be a criticism of the book, per se, for it was that "modern media" that bastardized the original novel, but it just made the premise seem a little odd.
Oh, well...I can say I read it now...and I'll never pick it up again.
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