42. Frankenstein Shelley

I am not a huge fan of horror or ghost stories and so I suppose it was a bit strange for me to select one of the classic horror novels as one of my 50. In school I read Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde so I figured I really should read perhaps the most famous of the genre.

I suppose I should start this review with an admission... I always thought Frankenstein was the name of the "monster"! And truthfully I don't really have much more to add to the review.

Shelley has a beautiful style of writing, that really does bring you very close to the anguish that Victor faces after creating his monster. The subsequent dilemma and argument that rages inside Victor's head over the creation of a companion or to perhaps suffer the anger of his creation is beautifully outlined.

I would never regard this as a particularly scary tale, although I suppose in its time it may well have been. What is perhaps more intriguing for me is the warning that Shelley gives out to the reader through Victor's confession to Walton:

"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the requirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow."

To me this is the true moral of the tale, while striving for greatness remember that you may end up reaping what you sow. A fine warning to all