Book Talk: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: 2025 Updated Edition!

2025 Update: I recently watched Netflix's latest release, the movie Frankenstein, and I have to say it is SO GOOD. "I loved it" would be an understatement, which is saying a lot because I usually do not enjoy renditions of classics especially when they take liberties with the storyline to make it, well, like a movie. BUT this one is amazing - the gothic setting, the characters, the dialog - everything's top notch. BUT before you go watch, I'd highly recommend getting your copy from Amazon and reading the book first. :)

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Everyone must have heard of Frankenstein, even if they never knew that it is a book by Mary Shelley, who started writing it at the age of eighteen, and publishing it when she was twenty. Even fewer people would know that the idea for this book came from an evening's pass-time activity when Mary, her fiance and poet Percy Shelley, friend Lord Byron and John Polidori were sitting in Geneva during a tour of Europe, and had to invent a way to spend their evening. They came up with a contest among themselves for the best ghost story, and the idea of Frankenstein was conceived in Mary's dream that night.

Written nearly 200 years ago, Frankenstein is the story of a young and ambitious man who is taken to the natural sciences at a very young age. Contrary to popular thought (and this is why it is crucial to read books), Frankenstein is the name of that young man rather than that of the creature (or 'monster', 'devil', 'demon', 'fiend') he created. The story has no name for the creature, and probably that's why the cartoon and film versions have named the monster Frankenstein for convenience (and it hurts to know that movie versions would, naturally, differ from the text). Victor Frankenstein belongs to a well-bred family, and his keen curiosity, facilitated by two professors at University, brings him to his doom. He discovers the secret to life, and attempts to create a being to whom he would provide life. The story takes a turn when the creator is appalled by his own creation as soon as it comes to life, and Victor abandons it. 

Frankenstein is not really a story of a monster and his evil deeds. It's more about the side-effects of knowledge, meddling with nature, trying to play God, and how unkindness and being loveless can turn one into a monster. The creature is at first loving, and very much like a new-born (except for the minor defect that he looks like an eight-feet tall and gigantic man). However, he has no one to take care of him, and his creator has abandoned him, so the creature goes out into the world on his own and realizes how man would despise him because of the way he looks. He learns to live in the wilderness, and gradually facing rejection from every kind of being he meets, he turns bitter and seeks revenge against his creator. 

The story follows the acts of the creature and Victor's increasing despondency. Though the creature acts cruelly, one can't help sympathizing with him. When you read about how much the creature craved love, and how frequently he was denied the basic need for existence, you do feel that his acts were justified and, strangely, human.

Frankenstein is a compelling read. It's written in an epistolary form - that is, in the form of letters. The initial introduction is made by a third observer, a Captain called Walton, who is travelling in the North in his ship. He comes across Victor Frankenstein, lost and barely surviving, and that's how he gets to know his story, and records it in his letters to his sister. 

I found Victor's lamentations to be a bit tiring towards the end and too frequent, but apart from that I couldn't help reading all the way. I was also amazed that the author was so young when she wrote the novel, which, apart from being Gothic in theme, also addresses topics like intolerance, delicateness of human nature, and effects of knowledge and ambition. I'm also listing facts about Frankenstein I got to know as a result of reading the book:

1. Frankenstein is the creator, not the monster. His full name is Victor Frankenstein, and he is not a mad scientist either. He's just an ambitious man driven over the edge.

2. Mary Shelley's father was the philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. 

3. Frankenstein created the creature in a makeshift laboratory in his hostel room. Unlike the movies, there is no lab on a cliff, nor is there a hunchbacked assistant. 

4. In the book, the creature neither has green skin nor bolts protruding from his neck. The physical description describes him as a gigantic, eight-foot tall man. Frankenstein had chosen handsome features for him, but his eyes were white and his skin stretched across his body in a contorted manner so that it made him look very much like an anomaly. 

5. The creature was never evil from the beginning, nor was it in his nature. It was the circumstances and lack of empathy that led to him being a monster inside.

6. The novel was originally called: Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus. It was first published anonymously in London in 1818.

7. There is really a Frankenstein Castle around Germany, where it was known that a scientist (alchemist) was engaged in experiments. Mary Shelley had traveled there with her group, and had thus come across it before writing her novel. 

8. The first theatrical production of Frankenstein was a twelve-minute silent film, in 1910. (Watch on YouTube here) 

Cool, isn't it? If this is not enough, let me share some quotable quotes too:

“How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow.” 

“I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.” 

“The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.” 

“What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?” 

“How many things are we upon the brink of discovering if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries?” 

Mary Shelley

Book Title: Frankenstein

Author: Mary Shelley

Published: 1818 (and many subsequent editions)

Pages: 273

Buy it at: Amazon

Genre: Classics/ Gothic/ Horror

My Rating: 4.5/5

Meanwhile, check out the delicious cover in this special edition hardback copy!!

Book talk: Moonfleet by J.M. Falkner

J.M. Falkner (1858-1932)

Book details

Title: Moonfleet

Author: John Meade Falkner (English novelist and poet)

Published: 1898

Find it at: Amazon

This book is about: a silent countryside, smugglers and contrabandiers, adventure, love and loss, human relationships, pursuit of lost treasure

Some cool facts around this book
1. The village of Moonfleet is inspired from East Fleet in Dorset in England.
2. The author, J.M. Falkner had an affinity for weapons and interest in the supernatural.
3. J.M. Falkner had other interests, but is known for his three novels, the most popular of which is Moonfleet. He wrote a fourth novel but it was lost when he left the only copy on a train and never saw it again (*sigh*)

How I came to this book

(I really like listing down such things as how I came across particular books. Some books are loved even more because of the way they came to your life, is it not?)

I had an old, yellow-paged copy of Moonfleet among my first ever book collection, which makes it date back to 2003 (approx.). I forget who gave it to me, with the most probable person being the aunt who has often gifted books in my early years (note to self: be such an aunt to someone!). I think I remember dad telling me how it was my aunt's and how she had enjoyed reading it and thought that I would like it too. 

Honestly, I was intrigued by the book (look at the cover! Plus, it was a battered copy, which is even more alluring) but it has taken me twelve years to get down to read it. I have tried picking it up quite a few times, but either found my way across to another book, or found it difficult to get through more than two pages. A few days back, finally, I picked it up and decided to start reading it during my long metro-train travel to work. I think it was one of those books that you wait to read at the right moment, as I don't think I could have enjoyed it more had I read it somehow on my earlier attempts. It was a delight to read Moonfleet, and I am grateful to whoever made me have this wonderful copy. (Still, I do not forgive the brat who has doodled on some pages. The nerve of some kids!)

What is Moonfleet about?

There is a fifteen-year-old boy called John Trenchard living in the Moonfleet village in Dorset (south of England) with his aunt. John's aunt is strict, though caring, so that John doesn't learn to love her much, though he was affectionate. Until one day, she deserts him for getting into mischief--when John was only following his curiosity and instinct--and leaves John fending for himself. 

Elzevir Block is a man most respected by some village folk, while some kept well away from him, including young John. He knows that Block's son, David, was shot by a Customs Officer, namely Maskew, after which Block had turned even more formidable. Yet it is Block who shelters John and cares for him as if he were his own David. Mr Glennie is the village priest and admin. head while Master Ratsey is the sexton, involved with the smugglers. 

Then there's the whole mystery of the Mohune vault, where Blackbeard, the last of the Mohunes (who had created Moonfleet) also rested and had cast a curse. Like most villagers, John believes in the story of Blackbeard's spirit digging the cemetery grounds looking for his lost treasure, until the time he discovers the secret, and finds a clue that, at first, leads him nowhere close to the cursed treasure. The story, however, is more about the paths John's life takes as he starts living a life among smugglers (of liquor) and his quest to find the lost treasure.

Why do I like Moonfleet so much? 

Writing style: This book is a classic story for children, teenagers and young adults, written in first person with John being the narrator. There's something of a mystery driven in each sentence, purely because of the sentence structures! Here and there, where something of importance would arrive at a later place in the story, the author stresses on the points by tagging those as things John would be discovering later. The language is beautiful, the characters' distinct voices made for by their tones and individual characteristics, and the descriptions detailed and wonderful. 

The story: I like how the author somehow makes it not just an adventure story, but a mix of adventure, mystery, thrills of the sea, and human complexity. I love how he uses the perspective of smugglers to describe all the events that take place, which makes you think quite kindly of people in the smuggling business (just because no one wanted to pay excise for good liquor! You can't be too strict about that, specially in 1750s, when the story is set). It makes a lawful person, who might think of those who follow lawlessness as inhuman, look at the other perspective. A hardened man much respected among the contrabandiers because of never being accused of felony taking immense pain to shelter a boy he barely knew anything about. The story is about John's increasing love and respect for 'Master Block', who had saved his life on more than one occasion. It is about greed, love that is incredibly patient, fatherly love, repentance, friendship, luck and perspective on life. All these themes are beautifully integrated in this story of a small village, sailors, prisoners and shipwrecks. 

I have read a few books based around pirates and ships, and though this one was not strictly only about that, I still will keep it in that category because of the sheer importance of the sea in this story. I hope I would read this book again sometime and enjoy it even more! Recommended for: teenagers, young adults, lovers of mystery, adventure, classics, ships and the sea.

Book Talk: Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

Jean Webster

Author: Jean Webster

Published: 1912

Find it at: Amazon

My Rating: 5/5

There was something about the title that appealed to me. It was also a title I remembered having seen somewhere, apart from having heard of, so when I came across it while loading up my Kindle with classic ebooks, there was no reason to overlook it.

Goodreads Blurb

Laugh out loud at Judy's charming and unforgettable letters

Young Judy Abbott has been saved from life at the orphanage by a generous--and anonymous--guardian. He will pay for her education if she promises to write to him every month. Judy writes the most exuberant and lively letters--packed with laughs, and tales of friendship and college life. Judy's having so much fun she can scarcely stop writing...

My Thoughts

Boy, was it the best impulse-reading-decision or what. Daddy Long Legs is an epistolary novel chronicling the story of Judy (Jerusha) Abbot, a seventeen year old orphan from the John Grier Home. She has stayed two years more at the home than most kids, and even though she has worked for her boarding, the Home cannot keep her much longer. At the home, the first Wednesday of every month was a day of great trepidation, as the trustees would visit and dine with the matron, looking at the children to see if all was well. On one such Wednesday, Judy had barely entered her room after an arduous day when she was called by the matron. On the way, she saw the shadow of an extremely tall man in a suit and a hat - a trustee, most probably - and his long legs in the shadow were all she knew about him.

To her great astonishment, as the matron informed her, the man had decided to send her to college. He usually despised girls, but the matron had spoken of her intelligence and prowess at English, and the trustee had decided to send her to college so she could be an author. There was one condition - Judy had to write at least one letter to him each month, informing him of her progress in studies. He wished to remain anonymous, and would never write back, but Judy was to address him as Mr John Smith and keep him updated.

The story follows Judy's letters that bring out not just the happenings in the four years of her college life, but also her development as a girl who literally sees the world for the first time. Judy Abbot is quirky, full of life and curiosity, guarded about her past, yet open to making friends. She writes way more than the stipulated 'one letter a month', because Mr John Smith is the only one who could be called a relation, even though he is only a sort of guardian for her. Nevertheless, she grows close to him, calling him Daddy-Long-Legs, and respecting his wishes (that he sent through his secretary in one-sentence-messages) for the most part. Gradually, the book explores much more than teenage or a parent-child relationship.

As she studies harder and tells Daddy Long Legs about the subjects she has undertaken, her friends - the kind and the conceited, her new dresses and things courtesy Mr Smith, she presents to him a picture of a young, empowered woman. She refuses to follow his orders if she found those unfair, or at least frankly letting him know of her opinion. By way of such a relationship and her personal development, Judy represents the power of education, and how men cannot decide to own any woman or make her do as he wished. She also builds an interest in Mr Jarvis, a kindly man whom she befriends. Despite Mr Jarvis being 14 years elder to her, she feels a strong sense of connection with him.

I found the book's language and writing style immensely refreshing. It was a surprise that this book was written so long ago, as it seemed quite 'contemporary'. It was initially categorized along with chick-lit books of the age and gradually came around to being tagged as a children's book. It is a book for all ages, I believe. There is good humour, sarcasm and intelligent conversations - the perfect ingredients for readers who feel put off by dumb dialogues. Daddy Long Legs is extremely well written! Some might find a few gaps in the story, but the essence of the novel is in the letters and including just that what is important, so I did not mind those at the least.

Jean Webster came from a family of women who strongly believed in education of women, and worked for the cause. That was undoubtedly her inspiration, as the theme of the book relates of social ideas, and presenting those ideas in a light manner, yet being able to drive home the point. (And oh, she happens to be Mark Twain's grand-niece) I'm glad I read this book, and I would recommend it to everyone.

There were so many wonderful lines in the book that I was continuously highlighting paragraphs after paragraphs. Some of my favourites are listed below:

“It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh - I really think that requires spirit."

“I think that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding.” 

“I believe absolutely in my own free will and my own power to accomplish - and that is the belief that moves mountains. ” 

"It seems to me that a man who can think straight along for forty-seven years without changing a single idea ought to be kept in a cabinet as a curiosity."

"The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way."

"But what's the use of arguing with a man? You belong, Mr Smith, to a sex devoid of a sense of logic. To bring a man into line, there are just two methods: one must either coax or be disagreeable. I scorn to coax men for what I wish. Therefore, I must be disagreeable."

^ This one is a favourite. 

Classic Talk #7: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte

Title: Wuthering Heights
Author: Emily Bronte
Published: 1847
Pages: 337
Get it at: Amazon (and THIS special edition cover!)
My Rating: 4.5/5

My relationship with Wuthering Heights is recent, and a beautiful one. It's also a difficult one. Like most difficult relationships, it started off with disinterest and procrastination to even look at it. I always knew it as the book my mother had loved reading and enjoyed very much. I got a copy about a year ago and set it carefully among other classic paperbacks, skipping it each time until a few weeks ago. 

It so happened that my next project at work pertained to Wuthering Heights. I finally had a chance to not only read, but study it as well. The first few pages were deeply confounding. What was happening? Who is this narrator? Who are all these characters and what is their relationship with each other? This book requires patience to get through the first few pages. I started drawing a character chart and pasted it on the desk, referring to it whenever a character was mentioned, so it was easy to understand the context of dialogues. It's not the ideal way, but it was a great help. I would recommend it if you find the confusion too much to read further, because it is worth reading further. Once you enter the story, it's hard to get out.

This is a story of Heathcliff and Catherine, two people who love each other passionately and believe they share the same soul. It's not that easy, though. Heathcliff was an orphan boy adopted by Catherine's father, Mr Earnhsaw, and despised by her brother Hindley. When Mr Earnshaw dies, the story turns into a series of psychological events, abuse, jealousy, revenge, social class, and love. Shunned by society and having lost the love of his life, Heathcliff's strong and unforgettable character spearheads actions aimed at annihilation of two entire families and generations, driven by revenge.

This book is unforgettable primarily because of characters' portrayal. The entire story is set in two houses - Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, yet the story is large. It is intense, and painfully real. Even though Heathcliff is monstrous in his actions, one can't help sympathising with him. Even though Catherine - both first and second - seems barely improving in the maturity department, one cannot help understanding her. The dialogues, setting (dark houses on desolate moors, viewing apparitions, Gothic in setting) and characters are so deeply woven that you can't help but imagine it happening for real, in a real Yorkshire countryside. 

One of the most remarkable aspects is the way it has been narrated. It runs in multiple narrations, starting and ending with the present, and narrating two generations' worth of story in between. The main narrator is Nelly, who has worked as housekeeper at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and is more of a relative than a servant. The narration is not entirely free from bias, as we see many instances where Nelly's personal opinion is stronger than facts. That adds an interesting dimension to the whole thing. Personally, I have mixed feelings for Nelly, reprimanding her for being too intrusive in the personal lives of her masters, but perhaps that was the way it was. 

When the book first came out, it had mild reception. Critics called the book amoral, because the character's actions seem to have no consequence with respect to law and morality. It gained popularity gradually, and ended up being a classic novel and one of the best known love stories in literature.

Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte's only novel. When you read about Emily Bronte, you feel as fascinated with her own life and personality as you feel for her book. A deeply reserved person by nature, she is one of the Bronte sisters (Anne Bronte of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Charlotte Bronte of Jane Eyre). She first brought out her book by the name of Ellis Bells, and it was only when Charlotte accidentally let slip her real identity, did her real name appear on the book's cover. She died at the age of thirty due to tuberculosis, for which she had refused any medication until it was too late to save her. If you feel interested, you might like to check out videos on her life and death on YouTube. Some really good ones are out there!  

Selected Short Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto

Saadat Hasan Manto

Popularly known as Manto, this short story writer is one of the greatest, as well as the most controversial, writers of India (shifted to Pakistan after Partition, so became popular as a Pakistani writer). His stories, originally written in Urdu, are simply narrated, having an essence of lyricism, metaphors and deep insight into human nature. This collection of stories has been  carefully translated by Aatish Taseer, and done in a way that is said to have maintained Manto's original style and its effect. 

Title: Selected Short Stories by Manto

Translated into English by Aatish Taseer

Published: 2008 by Random House India

Pages: 158

Find it at: Amazon

This collection has twelve translated stories, covering a variety of themes including partition, dogmas, women and society, sexuality, politics, and religion. The book begins with the author's introduction, which is a must-read if you are (like me) a first-time reader of Manto's stories, and wish to get an insight into the relationship between his Urdu stories and its translations. He has talked about his own experience and the declining fate of Urdu language. It greatly enhanced my reading experience as it gave a glimpse into Manto's literary life, influences and ideas. I have personally been fascinated with short stories that narrate stories worth telling in a novel, in just a few pages. Those stories have memorable characters, places and habits that come back to you at a later time. Manto's stories have that quality, and a lot more that's hard to describe in words.

The first story, Toba Tek Singh, is a well-known story. People in an asylum have spent years together in that enclosed space, and have absolutely no idea about what's happening outside. They don't know about the partition or what it means, so when a ridiculous proposition comes for some of the inhabitants to leave the asylum and go to 'India', they're pained by the thought of leaving home. It's the story of a man in the asylum who mutters a distinct string of words ending with random phrases, who cannot find his identity. Imagine my surprise when I mentioned the story's title to my dad, he immediately narrated the distinct phrase used by that man! 

Another story that struck me the most was For Freedom, that describes the travails of young blood during the freedom struggle, the hopelessness of politics and what it meant to the common man. Khaled Mian is one story that struck me as intense, cleverly invoking deep and hidden fears in the reader as it implicitly brings out the deep fears (fear of a loved one dying, or coming to harm, for example) in the main character and make him act the way he does. There are other such stories, all of which have been written in simple, yet metaphorical language that you would want to read slowly, word by word, because each word has meaning. This is one of the amazing things that good short stories do. To add to that, the impressive way in which Manto seems to understand human sentiments at the basic level, and is able to narrate those around a gripping, simple story, is sure to make you want to read more of him. That's because he doesn't talk about human sentiments like others, he chooses the most basic ones, and ones that many writers shy away from. He's also true in his stories, for not many have 'happy endings'. He tells a story as it is. 

Manto has been called a storyteller of Bombay. That was the city he supposedly loved the most, and wrote about the most. Capturing the essence of the place and the people, he has written numerous stories, a small portion of which have been translated and presented in this collection. Another thing that strikes you is that while India and Pakistan remain bitter about the partition, Manto's stories (as well as those of other writers like Ismat Chughtai and Parveen Talha) evoke the real feeling of loss that real people suffered. 

Saadat Hasan Manto has been tried for obscenity in his stories numerous times, but his open acceptance of human nature, choice of equality over orthodoxy, and compelling stories of people who identify themselves as humans, has always won over those issues. These stories are certainly powerful and inspire a reader to think. I admit to not really understanding the real meanings of some stories as they ended, or understanding the meanings of implied language, but that led me to look up Manto on Google, and am I impressed or what! If you'd like to make a foray into Urdu literature, old Indian stories, Manto is a must-read. Some stories are suitable for everyone, while some I would categorize into the mature category.  

 "What I have learned is that going against nature is in no way, under no circumstance, bravery. It's no achievement to kill yourself through abstinence, or to endure it. To dig your grave and get in it, holding your breath for days, to sleep for months on a bed of sharp nails... - stunts like these would bring neither God nor freedom. And from what I understand, the only reason India is still not free is that we've had too few leaders and too many stuntmen... They've found a politics that stifles truth and goodness of character and it's this same politics that has made the struggle for Independence so blinkered."

Thank you Random House Publishers for this book! :)

The Quilt and Other Stories by Ismat Chughtai

Sometimes as readers, we’re so enamoured by stories, books, themes and writing styles that are foreign to us, and to our culture, that we spend less time digging into the literary scene of our own country. Perhaps that’s because we choose those contemporary books that go super-popular and have snazzy titles, but later realize that they’re not even close to our preferences. So we avoid it altogether, not trying too hard to experiment. But then in between those rare trials, we find a book(s) that’s not on a bestseller list in the present scene, but is relatively well-known to a small section of people who’ve read it. We realize that digging deep and experimenting aren’t all that bad, and we give it more chances, and most of the times when we’ve got a hang of the kind of thing that’d be good for us, we come across more such titles and stories. We love them!

Ismat Chughtai

One such book I read is called The Quilt, Stories by Ismat Chughtai. She was a courageous Indian Urdu writer who was also a fierce feminist, and in her stories, explored themes of female sexuality, middle-class gentility and other areas of social reality.  

This collection has ten short stories, nearly all of them centred on feminism or having female characters bravely depicted just as they really are. These stories do not create fantasies or promote wishful thinking, but are descriptions of people and life as we all might have seen around us. One might think that the absence of a ‘happily ever after’ would make the stories depressing or non-hopeful, but the effect is opposite. You would be left thinking about them for a long time afterwards, and probably would feel even more close to them, just for the realness of them.

Be it the story of a child bride, getting beaten up and abused by the in-laws, yet having her own innocent ideas, or that of a woman scared of childbirth; be it a story of a woman who spent thirty years not getting over the man she loved, or that of a domestic worker thinking of the Englishman as her man – the stories do not shy away from presenting stories of people who’re very much real, very much messed up and whose stories are looked down on.

The beauty in Ismat Chughtai’s stories is in the writing style and the realism, the frankness and light-heartedness with which they’ve been narrated. If the translation manages to make a reader love those stories, no doubt the original Urdu version would be amazing! I’m finding it a little hard to describe the writing style. It’s simple, yet the stories are narrated in a way that you just cannot stop reading! Half the things are not direct, but implied, and that makes this narration just so unique.

One of my favourite stories in this collection is called Roots, and is about two families from different religions, living next to each other with utmost friendship that spanned three generations. That was a time when partition was limited only to a joke, but then it started becoming a reality, extended family and relatives started flocking in to the two houses, and a deep chasm was created in between them. After many, many years when the lady of the house refuses to leave for Pakistan along with her children, the story reflects her pain, confusion and memories associated with the place. Where is home? What is this stupid thing called ‘our land’? Is it not here, where she was married, where her children were born and where her husband lay buried after fifty years of marriage? This, and other stories like these do not talk about politics or superficial ideas, but the small lives of real people who just want to live a love-filled and happy life.

I’d recommend this book if you’re interested in stories that explore women and their lives, Urdu literature, popular classical authors, or Indian stories. It’s a light-read that would definitely leave you with something to remember.

Find it at: Amazon

Translated by M. Asaduddin in 2001. Published by Penguin Books in 2011.
Recommended to me by a super-duper friend!