Unabridged Audiobook
The constant turnover and varied quality of narration was a barrier at first, but became a compelling analogy of the misshapen monster itself over time. I’m familiar with a number of cinematic retellings of the story so it was good to come back to the source material to consider the points of departure various screen writers had taken. Much has been made of the anti-immigrant subtext of Bram Stoker’s Dracula but, while Switzerland has a long history of representing the exotic in British and European fiction (from Shelley to Conan Doyle and Hitchcock - even Nietzsche found the abyss there) I hadn’t considered Frankenstein through this lens. The numerous accents and inflections in this reading made that almost impossible to avoid.
Amazing book, and considering the author was only nineteen years old, when published, makes it all the more remarkable. I believe the story was inspired by Mary Shelley’s relationship with with her husband; The monster being his fame, which could be compared to a modern rock star. Also the tragedy of losing a child, is reflected in the novel. The idea of using written correspondence to explain the story, was copied much later, by Bram Stoker, in “Dracula”
It was difficult with so many narrators. Some were good, a couple very food, but some not so much and then it was distracting. There were a lot of glitches in the audiobook, ie example end of sentence twice during attempts to re-re-record it. The story itself was interesting.
I found much of this book a little tedious. The monster is description of his life was very good! Clearly a teenage girl trying to describe a man's emotions.
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