I’m doing my first impressions on Frankenstein, and for this one there will be spoilers throughout. 200 years is long enough to excuse them, ok? So far, Victor Frankenstein has created his monster, and apparently it went all the way to Victor’s hometown to murder his young brother in the two years since it escaped. The town has just condemned Justine for the murder, a long time friend and servant of the Frankenstein family. Victor is torn up by guilt, and I think his investigation into where the monster has run off to is about to begin.

I can see why this is such a beloved classic. The characters have an uncommon depth that I haven’t read in very many books, brought out Shelley’s mind blowing prose. She captures their inner most feelings on the page for the reader to experience like nobody else I’ve ever read. The characters all know themselves very well, and aren’t afraid to delve into their deepest emotions or share them with each other in intimate letters and encounters. In the moments they are afraid though, the sheer horror is taken to the next level because these characters are so exposed to their own feelings. Victor stitching together oversized body parts, bringing it to life in what is described as ecstasy, only for him to suddenly realize his creation “became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived,” is a moment that none of the other Frankenstein media is able to capture quite as well Shelley does. The way Victor feels is so visceral that when he goes into a sort of feverish depression after his monster escapes, it’s totally understandable. It would be weird if he didn’t collapse into a complete wreck after that.

Something that surprised me about the book is how funny it can be too. One moment in particular had me laughing out loud. When Victor’s professor, M. Krempe meets Victor’s childhood friend Clerval, he starts espousing about his own life, right after bragging about how humble he was in his youth.

“‘Young men should be diffident of themselves, you know, M. Clerval: I was myself when young; but that wears out in a very short time.’

M. Krempe had now commenced an eulogy on himself, …’”

The image of M. Krempe, “a little squat man with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance,” who is so conceited that he’d brag about being humble in his youth and then launch right into his own life story got me laughing every time it popped into my head for a good ten minutes after reading it.

I wish I could forge characters even half as expressive and relatable as the characters in Frankenstein. Keep in mind, these are supposed to be people living in the 1800s, and I still find myself relating to them more than a lot of modern characters, sometimes even characters I love. It’d probably take years to figure out every aspect of why that is, and longer to master it myself, if ever. I can’t wait to read the second half of the book and see where the investigation takes Victor. Will he find the monster? What happens when he does? What will the monster think of his own creator? I’m gonna end the blog just so I can go read it. You should too, I haven’t even finished it yet and it already gets my highest recommendation. It could end on the next page with everybody exploding for no reason and it would still be better than half the books I’ve read.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley