A Book for School I Actually Liked
I had to read Frankenstein for an English class in college, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Books I read for school always tend to be pretty hit or miss with me. Frankenstein hit.
I knew going in that it was nothing like the classic monster movie, but even that wasn’t enough to prepare me for just how different. Frankenstein’s Monster is a far more verbose and full character than I expected, even though I knew he actually talked in this one. In fact, the whole story was fuller than I thought. The questions it poses about the nature of science, man’s folly, and creation itself are poignant even now. It always shocks me just how prescient some novels from so long ago could be.
Mind you, it is very, VERY long. Not as long as, say, Crime and Punishment (which I had to read in a high school course), but longer than I know some people would care to put up with. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think it slogged at some points. But the lower points are worth it for the high points, and Mary Shelley’s writing is beautiful.
Something I think is more telling than anything else I could say about this book is that I was able to write multiple essays on this one novel alone for that class. It’s got that much material to discuss. I think that’s something pretty special for a book written 2 centuries ago.
I knew going in that it was nothing like the classic monster movie, but even that wasn’t enough to prepare me for just how different. Frankenstein’s Monster is a far more verbose and full character than I expected, even though I knew he actually talked in this one. In fact, the whole story was fuller than I thought. The questions it poses about the nature of science, man’s folly, and creation itself are poignant even now. It always shocks me just how prescient some novels from so long ago could be.
Mind you, it is very, VERY long. Not as long as, say, Crime and Punishment (which I had to read in a high school course), but longer than I know some people would care to put up with. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think it slogged at some points. But the lower points are worth it for the high points, and Mary Shelley’s writing is beautiful.
Something I think is more telling than anything else I could say about this book is that I was able to write multiple essays on this one novel alone for that class. It’s got that much material to discuss. I think that’s something pretty special for a book written 2 centuries ago.
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