Book Deals and Reviews

102 of 111 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars A moving, disturbing, depressing, but also touching tale, December 31, 2004
By Ian Fowler (Denver, CO United States) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Frankenstein (Penguin Classics) (Paperback) Much like Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is a story we all think we know, but really do not. Not many films have consciously attempted to follow the novel too closely (which should not detract from the excellent James Whale/Boris Karloff film, or its masterpiece sequel, “The Bride of Frankenstein). , everything liked culture “knows” about “Frankenstein” doesn’t originate from literature, but from films. This is a shame, in a way, because the novel itself is, if not the progenitor, an early vessel of so many archetypes found science fiction and horror.

The basic plot stayed intact when moved to other media. Swiss medical student Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret of life (which he never reveals, lest someone repeat the mistake). He then puts together a body, generally a man, from different corpses. He then becomes horrified by the creature he’s built, and abandons. The creature, suffering a great deal of neglect and abuse, still manages to get a thorough education, and learns of his lineage. After murdering Victor’s younger brother, and framing the family maid, the creature tells his (admittedly) sad tale to his “father”, , then demands a mate. Victor, in a panic, agrees, then thinks better of it at the last moment, destroying the new bride. In retaliation, the creature murders all of Victor’s loved ones (including his wife), and leads Victor on a merry chase across the world.

Most most likely know that Mary Shelley wrote this book in answer to a challenge issued by Lord Byron, throughout a vacation at Lake Geneva. (Along with this story came John Polidori’s “The Vampyre”, the 1st English vampire novel.) probably also know that Shelley went on to write other works of imaginative gothic fiction. Still, her modern repute rests with this book, understandably.

As stated, many archetypes (themes, plot lines, characters) are present here. The basic fear of what bad technology may bring with the good is a central theme, as is the warning against playing God. So is the implicit admonition to be accountable in all things, be it throughout novelty or being a parent. The creature is, for all intents and reasons, an android everyone from Gort to C 3PO owe their existence to the Frankenstein monster. And the monster that slays all but one protagonist is a staple of horror, be it conventional monster movies, like “Alien”, or more realistic slasher movies like “Halloween”.

But, as I noted at the beginning of this review, certain of these elements have been lost in most interpretations. The creature is really intelligent, and well spoken, quite different from the inarticulate grunts or slow, half sentences of the movies (again, no disrespect to Karloff). More, while the films have made lightening a staple of the creatures creation, Shelley never really explains the procedure (probably knowing that she may get in the way with the plausibility of her work). , one of the staples of the films is the explanation for the creatures “evil” nature. Frequently, the problem lies with the brain used, which nearly invariably is a criminal brain, or is damaged before implantation. In the book, the creature is really a child that is horribly neglected, but with the strength and intelligence to strike back: id without superego, and without restraints.

Thus, “Frankenstein” will be a new experience for readers who have never experienced it. Unlike “Dracula”, there are not any times where a reader may look up and realize how calm it’s in the house, or how black it is gotten outside. In that regard, “Frankenstein” hasn’t aged especially well. During, but, it’s a moving, disturbing, depressing, but also a touching and beautiful tale. Those qualities have withstood the test of time. While it isn’t generally a rollicking adventure, it’s a rewarding read.

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314 of 372 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of five stars don’t purchase THIS EDITION!!!!!!, January 31, 2007
By Penelope Specksynder “Penny” (Nederland) See all my reviews This review is from: Frankenstein (Enriched Classics) (Mass Market Paperback) This “enriched classics” is a bowdlerized variant of Mary Shelley’s original text. It removes passages, changes the diction, abridges the chapters, and changes the complete structure of the novel. Our school bought this edition thinking that the extra notes could be useful to students studying the text, but there was no indication at all on Amazon’s web site that this variant had been considerably altered by the editors. The book is so bowdlerized that our school bought an complete new set of texts for the students at a significant finanacial loss for the school. WHATEVER YOU DO, purchase many OTHER variant OF FRANKENSTEIN. THIS ONE IS A MONSTER produced BY SOMEONE WHO HAS NO RESPECT FOR THE AUTHOR. BANTAM, PUFFIN, OXFORD they’re ALL good. Irene Nicastro, English teacher, The American School of The Hague.

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66 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars More Relevant Today Than When 1st Written, November 18, 2003
By Gary F. Taylor “GFT” (Biloxi, MS USA) See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME) This review is from: Frankenstein (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback) Modern readers must jump through some hoops to take pleasure in this legendary novel. Written between 1816 and 1818, this is much a novel of its era, and both language and ideas about plot are quite different from those of today. That on the side, and unlike such contemporaries as Jane Austen, author Mary Shelly never been largely admired for her literary style, which is frequently uncomfortable. But possibly the biggest hurdle is that of our own expectations: while it surely sent icy chills down the spines of 19th Century readers, FRANKENSTEIN isn’t a horror novel per se.While Mary Shelly may have been stylistically weak, her story wasn’t. Nothing like it had been written before, and the idea of a student endowing life upon a humanoid creature cobbled together from charnel house parts has been unexpectedly shocking to the reading public. But more shocking were the ideas that Shelly brought to the story. Having produced this thing in his own image, what if anything does the creator owe it? And in posing this question, Shelly intentionally raises her novel to an more complex level: this isn’t just the clash of man and his creation, but also a inquiring of God and his responsibility toward his creation.In many respects, the book is written like the famous philosophical "dialogues" of the ancient world: a counterpoint of questions and arguments that do fight for the reader’s acceptance. More than anything else, FRANKENSTEIN is a novel of ethics and of ideas about ideas, with Mary Shelly’s themes arrayed in many layers throughout: God, self, society, science; responsibility to self, to society, to the things we bring to society, to the truth; life, honesty, and death these are the ideas and issues that predominate the book, and any one expecting a horror novel pure and simple is out of luck.Mary Shelly is a rare example of a writer whose ideas obviously outstrip her literary skill but whose ideas are so powerful that they transcend her literary restrictions and continue to resonate today. And indeed, as science continues to advance, it couldn’t be otherwise so. Mary Shelly couldn’t see into the future of DNA research, laboratory grown tissues, test tube babies and the like but between 1816 and 1818 she wrote a book about the ethical dilemmas that swirl around them. And for all its faults, FRANKENSTEIN is possibly more relevant today than it was over a hundred and fifty years ago.GFT, Reviewer

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337 of 344 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars The Eye of God, December 22, 1999
By Dennis Dalman (St. Cloud, Minnesota) See all my reviews This review is from: War and Peace (Penguin Classics) (Paperback) since I was a teen (I’m 51) I tried reading War and Peace. The furthest I ever got somethed like Page 80. Six summers ago, I thought, what , give it another shot. After Page 100 or the book picked up steam, and I was totally awed as I have seldom been by all the great books I have read in my life. That is what I want to share with possible readers of this great book. Stick with it. It is like a trickling stream that grows and grows from many tributaries into a great large raging river. It is got everything in it, as if it were written by God. Tolstoy saw everything. There are so many, many unforgettable scenes in it. My favorite two are the costume party at the country estate (pure magic!) and the great wolf hunting scene in which the wolf really takes on a personality under the all knowing skill of Tolstoy’s great pen. In just a line or two, Tolstoy could really get inside the "soul" of an animal! I can only imagine how great this book is in the original Russian. After War and Peace, I devoured Anna Karenina, which is in many ways an greater book. I’d recommend people read War and Peace with Cliff’s Notes, as I did, because you get a sense of the historical background and it assists you from to get the hundreds of characters mixed up. War and Peace is more than a novel. It is an Everest of creation. Stick with it!

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273 of 286 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars Simply one of the best books ever written, December 1, 1999
By Doug Vaughn See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) This review is from: War and Peace (Penguin Classics) (Paperback) I 1st tried to read War and Peace in High School. A teacher, who had carried the book all through the Pacific campaign in WWII suggested it as a book that had changed his life. I tried three times and could not get past some hundred pages due to many characters each with many names. The 4th time I stuck with it and has been rewarded with a reading experience that has seldom been equaled. Since that time I have reread the book every two or three years, so I must have been through it 15 or more times, and every time I find things I have not noticed before.This is such a great book by number of characters in all levels of Russian society, historical scope, period detail, philosophical implications, romance, drama, tragedy, action etc, etc, etc. There’s just no way to enumerate all that’s appealing about Tolstoy’s masterpiece. The major characters are as humanly complex and interesting as real people. I feel that I know them like friends. The plot(s) are involving and get more tight and interconnected as the book progresses, so that there’s a great satisfaction as different threads come together, and never with the jarring coincidences that move a common Dickins novel.If I had to pick only one novel that I could ever be able to read again, it could must be War and Peace. There’s so most of interest going on in this book that it could be hard to wear it out in a lifetime.

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229 of 243 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars Life., July 9, 2002
By miked99 (New York, NY) See all my reviews This review is from: War and Peace (Penguin Classics) (Paperback) Over the 4 week period it took me to read "War and Peace", I has been asked some number of times by friends and co workers who saw me with the book why it was so long. At 1st, I really did not have a good answer though I felt I knew why. Having finished it, I could tell them that its length is caused by its being a thorough novel covering nearly every part of life overall. This may be said about some number of books clearly, but in "War and Peace", Tolstoy covers human life more completely than, though maybe not also as, any other book I have encountered."War and Peace" lets us follow along in the daily lives of some number of land owning class characters from early 19th Century Russia. The Bolkonsky and Rostov families comprise most of these figures, but their friends and acquaintances take up almost as most of the concentrate of Tolstoy’s classic novel. These characters cover a large range of personalities from the devoutly religious Maria Bolkonsky and her close and conflicted friend Natasha Rostov to the independent Pierre Bezuhov and his depressing wife Helene Kuragin. Tolstoy can go in and out of his creations’ lives with simplicity and without exaggeration, if its in relating the common times of their daily lives or the climaxes of their earthly existences. The range of emotions, feelings, and actions that Tolstoy can relate is easily done through his genius in setting the story in the midst of Russia’s War of 1812 (the history of which he knew well), one of the worst in its long history. It is through such a life shattering event that people may be seen everywhere from their best to their worst, and Tolstoy, through a compelling story line and the novel’s famous length, displays the complete spectrum.I still love Dostoevsky’s writing more, usually due to difference in the conclusions his characters come to in their cathartic times, but "War and Peace" gave me a much greater respect for Tolstoy than I had earlier held (having read Anna Karenina, among others). I certainly recommend taking the time to read this classic.

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