Frankenstein

1818, 1985 Penguin Classics edition
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus
Probably bought new for $2.95
OK condition paperback
C+

I don't reread this book very often, so it's always strange to me how verbose the nameless monster is.  And his creator is Frankenstein, not a doctor though, but a madcap college student.  Since swallowing goldfish, stuffing people into phone booths, and putting naked pictures of oneself on the Internet haven't yet been invented, young Victor instead decides to create life through science.  This is his story, although it also contains a travelogue of Britain that defuses the tension to the point of ennui.  (I like the description of the Orkneys, but did we need the history of Oxford?)  The best part of the novel is the monster's narration, although I kept wondering when in the 1700s this was supposed to be set, because there are French characters who seem untouched by the Revolution.  It's notable that two centuries on, Don Quixote was still influencing British writers, although here it is less the humour than the misguided idealism of the hero.