Annotation #2: Classic Horror-Frankenstein

Horror Classics:

Frankenstein

By: Mary Shelley

(Originally Published in 1818)

Appeal:

š Violence

š Dramatic tone

š Descriptive language and scenes

Time Period: 1790’s & Setting: Europe, Russia, and Switzerland

 

Plot Summary: The book opens with adventurer Robert Walton’s letters to his sister Margaret regarding his expedition to find a new path to the Pacific Ocean. The crew of his ship convinces an emaciated man named Victor Frankenstein to come aboard. He retells his story to Walton. As a young scientist, Victor creates a new life form from a myriad of dead body parts. However, after seeing his creation, he becomes terrified and abandons the creature. After being rejected by his creator and the human-race as a whole, the monster decides to exact his revenge by wreaking havoc on those closest to Frankenstein. Frankenstein seeks to stop the monster’s destructive behavior, but the monster has one demand and that is to have a female companion with similar features created. Frankenstein battles between his responsibility to this creature he created and to the human race.

Read-Alike Classic Horror Titles (from NoveList):

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

    Dracula by Bram Stoker                                                                        

The Turn of the Screw by James Henry
Read-Alike Authors (from NoveList): 
H.G. Wells, Dave Freedman, & Christopher Buehlman