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Sto caricando le informazioni... The Annotated Frankensteindi Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
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A monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator, in an annotated edition that offers insights into Shelley's literary and social worlds.
This annotated edition offers insights into Shelley's literary and social worlds, and shows how she developed the story of a monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies. The monster develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator. The commentary places her work into a fresh light, deepening the readers' understanding of the novel and the Romantic Era in which it was created. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)823.7Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Early 19th century 1800-37Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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Hmmm. Well, at least it moved me! Anyway, it is a great story, even if the protagonist is a useless rat, exploring issues of the responsibilities of parents to their children, children to their parents, science to society, etc., as well as promoting tourism in the lovely Swiss Alps.
For this reading I had The Annotated Frankenstein, edited by Susan J. Wolfson and Ronald Levao, and, while I would not recommend it for a first reading (all the notes and pictures do disrupt the flow of the story), it added a Lot to my appreciation this time. I've read some about the Shelleys before (most recently Young Romantics), so I was already familiar with Mary Shelley's story, but the notes here discuss, among other things, how Mary's reading around 1816, and the politics and views on science, women's rights, etc. which would have been discussed in her social circle, played into the writing of Frankenstein. While the swooning and melodrama made me think very much of The Sorrows of Young Werther (which was, obviously pretty influential, since it was one of the Creature's three books), Mary Shelley makes her protagonist even more extravagantly self-indulgent than Young Werther (which takes some doing!) to the point, I think, of parody. Even on his deathbed, having caused the deaths of his brother, his wife, his father, and two friends, our “hero” says
He doesn't find his conduct blameable??? (Sputter, sputter!) And... the fact that he didn't do anything to “assure his happiness and well being” at all? I mean, we're not talking bottle-propping here. Creature opened his eyes and his creator ran. Pretty danged pathetic. But, in case the reader fails to see the connections (as I'm sure I did last reading), the editors bring William Godwin's fathering failures to our attention here. Mary had a pretty good idea of how it felt for a child to be poorly parented. She also could hardly fail to be aware of her sweet Percy's abysmal track record as father to the children he sired with his first wife, Harriet, at the same time he was canoodling around with Mary. Again and again, the notes in this edition helped me appreciate Shelley's clear insights into the self-indulgent, melodramatic personalities of men who bring children into the world and then fail to guide or care for them, and the self-pitying justifications which allow them to see themselves as victims/under-appreciated geniuses. She also, and not incidentally, presents the women who coddle these drama-kings, enabling their irresponsible behavior (how many of the Shelley's babies died because Percy insisted on traipsing all over Europe with infants in tow? Three, I think. Gah!). Anyway, probably because Mary was so absurdly young when she wrote Frankenstein, my tendency would be to read many of the over-the-top speeches of our protagonists straight, as though she really meant us to admire their “romantic” nonsense. Victor's speech to the sailors, for instance, in Volume III, Chapter 7, where he is trying to talk them into dying in the northern ice because he finds having their boat convenient for his purposes. He says:
He's really piling it on (I'm pretty sure that even the dimmest witted of sailors would realize that it wouldn't be his name that got adored!), but... well, people do. Fortunately, our notes remind us that “The Shelleys despised this rhetoric of honor and glory in military recruitment, often to serve the personal vengeances and ambitions of national leaders,” and point again to Satan's speeches (Percy gave Mary a nice copy of Paradise Lost) to his followers, as well as to Dante's Ulysses's speech to his men in Inferno. So, our author is not condoning this stuff – she's letting us see Victor still using his powers of persuasion to try to manipulate those around him, all the way to the end. He is, at least, consistent.
I find the creature less plausible (I guess that's not surprising) and not terribly sympathetic. Initially he is, of course, poor fellow. Only just “born,” and immediately abandoned, in November, and, unlike most “babies,” he's not even cute and cuddly. His response to universal rejection, while not, perhaps, shocking, is... poorly implemented. I thought his request to Victor was quite reasonable, although Victor's point, that a female creature might not be on board with the whole “going off to South America to live in isolation on roots and berries” thing, was a fair one. Still, his rather graphic demonstration to Victor of how it feels to be bereft of family and friends, however emotionally satisfying it must have seemed, is over-the-top. Creator and Creature share this tendency for excessive drama, though I imagine they'd both deny it.
Anyway, I enjoyed this, and especially this annotated edition, which has, as well as excellent notes, beautiful illustrations. Four stars. ( )