Frankenstein (Road Classics): Or, the Modern Prometheus (Roads Classics)

Victor grew up reading the works of Paracelsus, Agrippa, and Albertus Magnus, the alchemists of the time. Toss in a little natural philosophy (sciences) and you have the making of a monster. Or at least a being that after being spurned for looking ugly becomes ugly. So for revenge the creature decides unless Victor makes another (female this time) creature, that Victor will also suffer the loss of friends and relatives. What is victor to do? Bow to the wishes and needs of his creation? Or challenge it to the death? What would you do?Although the concept of the monster is good, and the conflicts of the story well thought out, Shelly suffers from the writing style of the time. Many people do not finish the book as the language is stilted and verbose for example when was the last time you said, "Little did I then expect the calamity that was in a few moments to overwhelm me and extinguish in horror and despair all fear of ignominy of death."Much of the book seems like travel log filler. More time describing the surroundings of Europe than the reason for traveling or just traveling. Many writers use traveling to reflect time passing or the character growing in stature or knowledge. In this story they just travel a lot.This book is definitely worth plodding through for moviegoers. The record needs to be set strait. First shock is that the creator is named Victor Frankenstein; the creature is just "monster" not Frankenstein. And it is Victor that is backwards which added in him doing the impossible by not knowing any better. The monster is well read in "Sorrows of a Young Werther," "Paradise Lost," and Plutarch's "Lives." The debate (mixed with a few murders) rages on as to whether the monster was doing evil because of his nature or because he was spurned?

How anyone is not obsessed with Frankenstein is beyond me. The story of a Dr and the "monster" he creates only gets more poignant with time. I was given this edition by a friend who knows I love Mary Shelley's story. It is one of the most attractive and modern looking I have seen. Highly recommended. I treasure it.

Got a set of ten of these for Christmas. Beautiful clean design and classic stories. As a book lover you're spoiled for choice.

Really cool edition

A great edition! I am very excited to read it.

As advertised, you get the complete text of the 1818 original publication. I found no difficulties or obvious scanning errors in the text. Unfortunately, the chapters are not keyed to the 5-way controller which makes jumping around significantly more difficult. Bookmarking and highlighting and searches work as expected. There are no illustrations or other material. The dictionary did have an entry for "forcemeat!" The story, of course, will surprise those who expect Boris Karloff's version. (Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (1994) with Robert DeNiro as the monster is the most faithful.) I find Shelley's story not so much as a horror story as a sad, grim, cautionary tale. Note her subtitle, "The Modern Prometheus."

This text is the 1831 version. For readers not aware of this, the author, Mary Shelley, published an original in 1818, then a second version in a 2 volume in 1923 if I remember correctly, and a last one, with a good amount of editing in 1831. This, advertised as the original 1818 text, is NOT!!! Is the 1831 version. I wanted to buy and read the 1818 and bought this one. After this review im contacting customer service.Hope this helps.

Such a gorgeous edition, and a nice addition to my bookshelf!

Love it, but didn’t realize the prints were going to be HUGE. I think it was my fault for not realizing how big BIG actually is.