This is a novel where most would assume they know the story from the various books and movies in popular culture. Of course this is the original and it was every bit as good as I anticipated. In fact probably better than expected. Far from being a standard monster story, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus' tells a compelling tale of horror with outstanding depth and complexity. There are both subtle and obvious allusions to plenty of subjects like the impact of technology, creation of life, ethics, love, loss, rejection, violence and revenge.

In a nutshell, Frankenstein is about the work of a scientist named Victor Frankenstein and his creation of the hideous, humanlike monster now widely known as "Frankenstein". It actually isn't given a name and should really be called Frankenstein's monster but I guess it's understandable that this has become the popular identifier. Some would argue that Victor is the monster anyway so perhaps the melding would fit. Without revealing what happens in the book, whilst reading I did want things to work out for Victor. This was largely because the story is from his point of view but even with his violence the monster has a case for sympathy as well. This ambiguity about the villain is one of the novel's defining characteristics, and makes for a brilliant, thought-provoking story.

The writing is good but what stands out is the effectiveness of the language in capturing the mood and state of mind of the main characters. Shelley had a great talent for portraying emotion with her prose which is really quite poetic at times. Clearly she had some luminary influences and it makes sense that she married a poet. I don't think her other novels achieved much recognition but Frankenstein is a tremendous gothic horror novel.