CR2: Book 11 Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

When I started reading Frankenstein the other day at work, I soon realized that while I'm sure I've seen many cinematical versions of the story, there were elements evolving I hadn't picked up. The tale is so well-known, but it wasn't until I actually started reading it that I realized I hadn't read it before.

We all know where it starts. Victor Frankenstein wants to be a famous scientist.

Living in Switzerland in the mid-1700s with his family and adopted sister, he is preparing for college when his mother becomes ill and dies. He kind of creepily is in love with Elizabeth, the sister, and wants to start a relationship with her, as soon as he gets his chemistry degree. He becomes obsessed with matters of life and death, and it's a swell time for it, what with all the medical and technological advances going on. Someone just tracked the human circulatory system!

So in between studies, he pilfers through corpses in graveyards and stiches together a giant man-corpse. There was no big stormy-night-lightning-scene, rather he injects chemicals into the meatbag and then is shocked when it sits up, because it's so monstrous. It's like he didn't even see it for what it was when it was lifeless.

Anyway, Frankenstein faints and the monster wanders away. For weeks, it roams the woods learning which roots and berries don't make it sick. It sticks its hand in a campfire. It enters a house and learns from the reaction it gets that it's not a very beautiful creature. It's chased by an angry frightened mob.

The monster soon holes up next to a small house, helps the couple that lives there with some secret garden-tilling and even befriends a blind old man. Then the monster Teaches Itself To Read and starts Philosophizing About The Nature of Itself. (I know, I was all, what?!)

Basically, the monster is lonely and wants his creator to make him a woman. It starts stalking Frankenstein. It kills one of the younger Frankenstein brothers and the nanny is blamed and executed. It vows to take further revenge on the night Victor and Elizabeth are to be married.
There's a desperate chase across some frozen tundra.

The real fun is this awfully morbid reality was imagining Boris Karloff as the monster and Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth. As it was, reading this book was a jumble of familiar scenes and images. All too enjoyable.