A review by caribbeangirlreading
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley

challenging dark slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

DISCLAIMER – This is a review of the original 1818 text, not the heavily edited 1831 edition. 
 
THOUGHTS 
· Victor Frankenstein is a self-centered, whiny, man-boy. I despise him. 
· There is kind of a reverse original sin theme going on – “the being” was born good, it was the way people treated him that turned him into a monster. And I don’t buy Shelley’s theory for one minute. Yes, people who are hurt usually hurt others, but the violence spree that the being goes on is completely out of proportion to the way he has been treated. It just feels like the author is making excuses for men who behave badly. 
· Once I started reading, I realized this is not a text of Victorian literature (my mistake), but very firmly rooted in the Romanticism period. Between that and the fact that this book was written by an 18-year-old, I found it to be way too “emo” for my taste. The writing was full of angst and over-the top melodrama and it drove me bananas. 
· The book is divided into three parts. The first two were obviously written by the same person. The third part, however, is obviously written by someone else. The level or writing and maturity is head and shoulders above the first two parts. My theory is that Mary’s husband, Percy Shelly, wrote that third section, or at least it was very heavily edited by him to the point that it feels like someone else wrote it. 
· The original text was highly criticized. Mary Shelley caved and re-wrote many parts of the novel. And when I say Mary Shelley re-wrote, it most probably means that Percy Shelley highly edited the new text. So . . . if you have read the 1831 version chances are that what you like is really Percy’s heavy-handed editing, not Mary’s writing. 
· These are all my personal theories, and I’m sticking to them.
 
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