February 6

Frankenstein
By Mary Shelley

Frankenstein, sometimes subtitled "Or The Modern Promotheus" was published 200 years ago this year, while mostly written "on a dark and stormy night" in 1816 when author Mary Shelley (age 17) was on holiday with her paramour Percy Shelley in Switzerland.

This classic is much more tragedy than horror story.  While the book is a story within a story narrated by a British explorer named Walton, the gist of the story surrounds the young doctor Victor Frankenstein.  Obsessed with origins of life, he attempts to create a living being from parts of cadavers in his laboratory.  Surprisingly, he is successful, but he is repelled by the "monster" he has created, and immediately rejects him.  The creature, however, has feelings and wants to be accepted.  He spends months in hiding in a cottage shed where he is able to observe a family relate to and speak with one another.  While they sleep he leaves them gifts of firewood and hopes they will accept him.  The first person he approaches is a blind, elderly man who responds to the creature's overtures, but when the man's family sees the creature, they immediately cast him out.  He continues to be rebuffed by society and eventually exacts revenge against the man who created him.

The prose is beautiful and the various editions of the book over the centuries attest to its ongoing popularity and message.  I discussed this title in two book groups, have seen various movie version and even a recent dramatized work.  The story never grows old.