Reading the Classics: Frankenstein

What is the original monster story about? Why is it referenced so much in gothic literature and pop culture?

I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley to start off 2026 while inspired by various Booktubers and looking for a break while making my way through the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. Bought from a small bookstore in Ashland, Oregon, this small but mighty book proved to be enthralling if a bit long-winded at times. It took a minute to get used to the style of writing in its flowing, provocative prose, but once I was in, I was in. Spoilers for a book written almost 200 years ago.

I particularly enjoyed Victor Frankensteins decent into madness. Shelley writes in such a way that you can feel the sanity slipping from his mind while at school working on understanding biology and the science of life. Who hasn’t gone a tad bit crazy with a hyperfixation before? One of my favorite and most macabre passages:

“I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life; I saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain.”

Evocative, grotesque, and beautiful all wrapped in one.

What I did not expect was a 6-chapter monologue from Frankenstein’s monster as retold all that happened to him from his creation to reunion with Victor. Shelley describes the sensations and thoughts of discovering the world from newborn eyes like a fresh baby with the ability to talk. It gave me a new perspective on consciousness.

Overall, I’d say the book was good, but read more lengthy than I expected because of the writing style of the time. Sentences have multiple subclauses, descriptions of emotion go on for paragraphs, and the writing dwells on misery more than expected. Anxiety and worry were a large focus on the book. The book focused in large part on tragedy.