In 1816, Mary Shelley, her future husband Percy Shelley, John Polidori, and Lord Byron spent the summer near Geneva, Switzerland, where they had a competition to see who could write the best horror story.  Mary Shelley’s entry eventually became Frankenstein, published in 1818 when Shelley was just 20.

The Frankenstein story told in Shelley’s novel bears little resemblance to the one that has permeated pop culture over the past 200+ years.  There is no Igor, no sewn-together body parts from various cadavers, no electricity or lightning to bring life to the creature.  Instead, Frankenstein methodically builds his creature over two years and uses an unknown process to bring him to life.

This was not at all what I expected.  I don’t know what I expected, but this wasn’t it.  All three main characters, the creature, Frankenstein, and Captain Walton, all seem to speak with the same flourishes so that it is hard to tell them apart if you aren’t paying close attention to who is telling whose story.  I guess I am glad I read it, from a historical perspective, but it has certainly tempered my appetite for future entries in this Amazon Classics line.