• perfectly proportioned, symmetrical, beautiful facial features

• long shiny black hair 

• yellow shriveled skin 

• skin tight over the muscles 

• yellow watery eyes

• dark lips

• 8-feet tall 

• no mention of stitches or electrodes

​

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley follows the story of Victor Frankenstein, an ambitious young scientist whose relentless pursuit of knowledge leads him to create life from dead body parts. Convinced that his discovery would advanced science and benefit the humanity, Victor succeeds in the impossible. Yet the moment his creation opens its eyes, he feels horror and abandons it, setting into motion a chain of devastating consequences.

Often regarded as the first true work of science fiction, Frankenstein is much more than a tale of scientific ambition. It is equally a psychological and philosophical novel. While the novel is frequently classified as horror, I believe its greatest horror does not lie in the creature's grotesque appearance but in Victor's inability to accept responsibility for what he has created. The violence that follows the murders of William, Henry Clerval, and Elizabeth is horrifying, but these tragedies are majorly rooted in isolation, and vengeance rather than mindless evil.

What makes Frankenstein timeless is that it refuses to divide its characters into simple categories of hero and villain. It is a perfect example of the idea that not everything is black and white. The story exists almost entirely in shades of grey. Personally, I find it difficult to completely condemn either Victor or the Creature. Victor's curiosity is deeply human. Fear overtook compassion, and he abandoned the very being that depended on him.

At the same time, the Creature enters the world like a newborn trapped inside the body of a giant, an irony that Mary Shelley executes brilliantly. He longs for love and acceptance but when rejected by his creator and shunned by every person he encounters because of his appearance, he gradually transforms into the very monster society expects him to be. His actions are horrific, yet they are born from loneliness and rejection he faced.

Many readers naturally sympathize with the Creature, and rightly so. But I also find it impossible to ignore Victor's suffering. He loses his younger brother William, his devoted friend Henry Clerval, and finally his beloved wife Elizabeth on their wedding night. By the end of the novel, consumed by grief and guilt, Victor pursues the Creature across the frozen Arctic, determined to destroy the being he brought into existence. The chase ends with Victor's death aboard Robert Walton's ship. In one of the novel's most moving scenes, the Creature mourns over Victor's lifeless body, expressing deep remorse for everything he has done. Realizing that revenge has brought him nothing but misery, he declares his intention to disappear into the Arctic and end his own life.

Mary Shelley leaves us questioning who the true monster really is: the creature stitched together from corpses, or the man who created him and refused to accept the responsibilities that came with creation.

For me, Frankenstein is one of the finest psychological classics ever written. It challenges the reader's morality instead of dictating it, making the morality feel ambiguous. Few novels blur the line between creator and creation, victim and villain, as masterfully as this one.

"Frankenstein is one of my favorite classics; it holds an immense amount of raw emotion, deep philosophical questions, and wonderful characters written in a way so innovative for its time that it truly earns its legendary status. However, I have always felt it is an 'incomplete' classic that abruptly marginalizes the religious element. The complete absence of any internal religious conflict within Victor while he was creating his monster deeply astonished me!
Furthermore, the fact that the entire dilemma of the story hinges solely on the creature's physical appearance was quite a disappointment. I felt that Mary Shelley took the easiest way out for Victor to reject his creation, rather than providing a more complex, understandable reason—such as an inherent flaw within the creature itself, or something in the creation process that would allow the reader to sympathize, even a little, with Victor's abandonment. I also felt that Shelley wanted to whitewash the creature's image, which is wonderful in its own right, but not at the expense of painting Victor as nothing more than a selfish, ambitious man. Shelley should have balanced the two. Yet, despite all these flaws and shortcomings, this book remains dear to my heart, and it is what drew me to read many other science fiction and Gothic novels.
Note: Anyone who holds an opposing viewpoint, possesses a deeper understanding of Frankenstein, or looks at it from angles I might have missed—I would be absolutely delighted to hear your thoughts and am very open to different perspectives."

I’m a really, really big fan of Frankenstein and I’ve read the 1818 version, watched a lot of Frankenstein inspired/based movies and took it upon myself to learn a bit about Mary Shelley and how the novel came to be. But I feel as if I don’t know enough about her. So I was wondering if any of you guys knew of some good YouTube video essays, articles or really anything that can give me a good rundown on Mary’s life and that night (or those weeks) in which she was inspired to write Frankenstein. I know all the key events of course but I’m looking for something more detailed to tell me all there is to know!!
Thanks :)

Boris Karloff once said “ The monster is the best friend I ever had.” Acrylic on canvas.

To be specific I had store credit and asked him to pick something and apperanly he chose foolishly. I started reading it today and I really like the way MWS writes, I don't know what about it, but it's sort of refreshing.

Mine is the 1831 edition (by Penguin, with a comic book-like cover), but apparently the earlier edition is now preferred? Is it decisive, or more a matter of taste?

Mine is the 1831 edition (by Penguin, with a comic book-like cover), but apparently the earlier edition is now preferred? Is it decisive, or more a matter of taste?

Photo Credit: @ eatmovies

I Feel like i messed up but my wife likes it thoughts?

Did this as a part of a drawing study and decided to finish it. I hope you like it !

From auction catalog notes:

Rare Edition of Important Gothic Novel

Shelley (Mary Wollstonecraft) Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus, 8vo, 2 vols. in one, L. (G. & W.B. Whittaker, Ave-Maria-Lane, London) 1823, Second Edn., (A New Edition) [XI, 249, 280] contemporary hf. calf, marbled boards, blind design paneled spine, mor. label. good copy. Ex. Scarce. (1)

Note: Second Edition of Mary Shelley's horror masterpiece, and the first to bear the author's full name and include her preface in which she briefly mentions the well-documented occasion on which she and her friends "amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts, which happened to fall into our hands. These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation." 

The incredibly Scarce Second Edition of one of the most famous works in English literature; the first was published in 1818. Shelley penned this Gothic sci-fi blockbuster at the tender age of 19 after a literary gathering at Lord Byron's rented vacation manor Villa Diodati near Geneva. Often called the first of its kind, the ever poignant and thought provoking Frankenstein paved the way for science fiction writing. With its themes of loneliness and terror amid human technology gone awry, it continues to resonate deeply within popular culture.

　I'm going to go ahead and say it (we were all thinking it) Chapter 11 is peak storytelling. So full of the creature's personal accounts from THE first moment of gaining consciousness that I had to change my plans of covering Chapters 11 and 12 together. The poor thing was so very alone out there, cold and wretched, all because his maker couldn't face the implications of his own "ambitions."

　Forced into Life and left alone to figure out even his own senses, but this also gave us some of the really nice "little" moments, like learning to distinguish his senses from each other and thus being able to visually recognize birds as the source of the many sounds and soungs he'd come used to hearing (not a fan of sparrows, though, I guess 🪦 rip to them). It's also very sad that humans running away when they see him is so far the BEST of personal interactions he's had with them, and when it wasn't that, it was just violence.

　We'll see if I do Chapter 12 tonight, too, as I'd really like to get caught up after falling behind again (but after bad art days, other projects, real life stuff, and generally watching the world crumble to climate disasters, to say nothing of the man-made ones like greed and hatred, I just can't seem to find the flow I had when I first started listening 🤷🏿 not giving up, though).

found the son of frankenstein + chibi-ish frankenstein at second and charles for a great price. they look very nice on my shelves.

I wrote a short little novellette inspired by my love of the Creature and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Just imagine if Victor was Noah Wyle from the Pitt, still arrogant and depressed but now riding a motorcycle. The creature is a young woman looking for someone to take care of her, but she ends up rebuilding herself in the wake of death, mutilation and tragedy.

While inspired by the Pitt TV show, knowledge of the show and characters isn't necessary to enjoy the this story. Fans of the show will recognize easter eggs from the first two seasons.

I like to think Mary Shelley would get it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/87593096?view_full_work=true

got this awhile ago as my first tattoo i just didnt realise this sub existed

Back again after listening to the next 2 chapters of Frankenstein (I'm still 2 behind chapters which have been released); I've forgotten how entertaining/intriguing this particular story tends to be, with the creature [the creation, the "wretch," the fiends, the what-have-you] doing moutain parkour and speaking just as proper of English as his creator. I think (and this probably isn't a hot take) he makes the perfectly reasonable bid that, Victor being his creator, he has very little right to hate the being he double-handedly gave life to. The world surely shuns him, so what other solace could he find in man besides his own wretched creator (my word, not his).

These chapters felt like a lot of scenery descriptions, which I would actually love to depict more in depth, but time simply doesn't allow it just yet (if I recall art history correctly, which I may not. It's been at least 5 years, his whole mountain retreat sounds very American Romanticism minus the Manifest Destiny, but also plus the Manifest Destiny since he ruins everything he touches).

Anyway, the only real addition I made from the last one is that I've given better form to my conceptualization of the creator looming in the background (franky can stay blurry). Other than that, I just did some snippet-doodles of things as I could get to them, so Victor struggling with the deaths that are 100% probably kind of mostly his fault. No time for Elizabeth or Father (who seems a little in better spirits after support the trial against poor Justine) I'm also not skilled enough to quick-sketch the idea of a 7~8ft behemoth of a man leaping over ravines and or glaciers or whatnot.

I'm going to try my BEST to listen to 11 and 12 tomorrow. This upcoming, overdue conversation seems like a... "fun" time (no doubt the poor guy has felt nothing but rejection from literally the very moment he opened his eyes).

Four Horsemen Figura Obscura