Victor Frankenstein and his monster are firmly part of pop culture. It was interesting to read the original text. I wasn’t aware that a large part of the story is described from the perspective of the monster. Besides this monster perspective, Shelley innovated the mad scientist archetype and tries to explain magic with science (e.g. the use of galvanism to explain Frankenstein’s experiments).

There is an interesting link to The Wager that I read before this book. Shelley wrote Frankenstein at the suggestion of Lord Byron   (Mary Shelley, Byron, Percy Shelley, John Polidori agreed each to write a ghost story.) Lord Byron’s grandfather John Byron   , was one of the few survivors of the Wager shipwreck. Had he died on Wager Island, Frankenstein might have never been written.

Guillermo del Toro’s movie Frankenstein   captures the essence of the book and features impressive cinematography, but definitely invents new parts (the Henrich Harlander story, the tower explosion) and changes or omits others (Vikor goes to study in the UK instead of Ingolstadt, Victor’s wedding with Elisabeth, Victor’s relationship with his father).

Of course the book is out of copyright and can be read for free over at gutenberg.org   .