Frankenstein: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting

Summary: Karen Swallow Prior writes a helpful introduction and footnotes throughout the book to assist the modern reader. 

One of the things that I have learned in reading old books is that culture and styles change, and modern readers often need assistance to understand the nuances of old art. It is not that we can't get something out of old art on our own, but having a guide helps increase art appreciation. I read Frankenstein first about 10 years ago. I was completely unprepared for the actual story because of how far the movie adaptations have come from the original. One of the podcasts that I enjoy, Persuasion, did a book club reading of Frankenstein using the edition of the book that has the introduction from Karen Swallow Prior. I have enjoyed Prior's writing and have followed her on Twitter for years, so I decided to go ahead and pick up the new edition and read it along with them. (The podcast ends with an episode with Karen Swallow Prior.)

Karen Swallow Prior has a series of classics, including Jane Eyre, Heart of Darkness, Sense and Sensibility, and several more books that will be released next year. I read this on kindle as I tend to do, and I picked it up when it was on sale. But I have heard that the print editions are nice cloth-bound editions that are well designed. The introduction was helpful. I had no idea that Shelley was so young, 17, when she wrote the book. Nor that she had already been pregnant and lost a child or traveled all over Europe with her scoundrel of an (eventual) husband Percy Shelley already.

The biography of Shelley does help understand the novel. Her mother died soon after childbirth, but her mother was a well known proto-feminist and her father a very well known anarchist. Mary and her step-sister left with Percy Shelley on a European tour when Mary was about 16. Percy was married but openly flouted sexual mores and Mary was pregnant when she returned. Although Mary's father had written against marriage and Percy seemed to be the embodiment of her father's anarchist ideals, her father disapproved of the relationship. Percy was the father of Mary's first child in 1815, but also the father of a son by his wife (1814) and apparently sleeping with Mary's step sister, Claire Clairmont, only 8 months younger than Mary, the daughter of her father's wife from a previous marriage. Claire also became pregnant in 1816, although the father is presumed to be Lord Byron. Percy's wife committed suicide and the Mary and Percy married in late 1816 in an attempt to become respectable enough that Percy would be given custody of his two children. He was deemed unfit and the children were placed with a local clergy family.

It was on another Europen tour earlier in 1816 with Percy and Lord Byron where they spent time in Geneva Switzerland that Mary conceived of the story and started writing Frankenstein. It was published in 1818, initially anonymously. Percy continued to be both controlling and open and about his affairs. From 1815 until 1818 all three of the couple's children died in infancy and the frequent moving and lack of care and stability of Percy likely contributed (although that era had a very high infant mortality rate.) In 1819, Mary's only surviving child was born. A fifth pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in 1822, not long before Percy died in a drowning accident. Mary never remarried. The couple had moved so frequently in part because they were always short of money and trying to stay away from creditors and to keep anyone from taking away their children because they were deemed immoral and unfit parents.

There were multiple editions of Frankenstein and Mary wrote other less well-known books and worked to edit and publish Percy's writing. Mary was broke and depended on her writing for income. Percy's father offered to adopt the surviving child, but only if Mary cut off contact, which she refused to do. Eventually, Percy's father did agree to support Mary and his grandson, but the income was inadequate and the relationship was tense. Eventually, her son, also named Percy, married and Mary lived with them until her death at the young age of 53.

All of that biographical detail is tragic, but the themes of Frankenstein are reflected in her life story, even though the story was written while she was very young. Frankenstein, who is the creator of the monster, not the monster, was engaged to his cousin Elizabeth. They had grown up together because she was an orphan. But throughout the book even though she is in the story, she is on the side of the story and Frankenstein never seems to pay any attention to her own needs. Elizabeth is killed on their wedding night by the monster in revenge for Frankenstein not creating a wife for the monster, but like much of the rest of the book, Frankenstein is primarily concerned with his own thoughts and feelings and not anyone else. I understand people that are frustrated with the book for how much Frankenstein mopes around and hides his role in the creation of the monster and the death of all of those around him. And I understand how people come to the book assuming it is going to be a different type of book. But I do think that Mary Shelley wrote a masterful story. Its structure is fascinating. And I think she keeps all of the characters from being either too perfect or solely victims or monsters.

There is clear sexism to the Romantic free love ethos of Percy and Lord Byron and others. Mary was very young and below the age of consent when they first met. They stayed together, but that was only because Mary did not leave when Percy primarily focused on other women. As much as there is brilliance in Frankenstein, the behavior and attitude of the protagonist is offputting. But the book is still worth reading.

Frankenstein: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition