Favorite Books Series: Frankenstein
It’s time to wrap up the favorite books series, which, of course, I’m doing in honor of National Book Lovers Day, which is celebrated every August. After highlighting A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Peace Like a River, I’m rounding out my top three with a classic. It honestly has been top of the top for me ever since I first read it, which I’m pretty sure was in college. It’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The thing I love most about Frankenstein is how different it is from anything you might have pictured before reading it. It was such a surprise to me. Of course people always mix up that Frankenstein is not the monster, but rather the doctor who creates him. But once he’s created, it’s really the monster’s story, and when you think about all the perceptions and stereotypes and overall lore around the concept of Frankenstein’s monster, it’s a far cry from the creature we actually read about in the book.
And yes, there’s a moment (a tragic moment, really) when he turns, but it’s only in response to how he is treated—specifically because of the way he looks. The build-up of him watching and then befriending the blind man, only to be cruelly rejected once others see him and in turn reveal what a “monster” he is, is gutting. It puts him in the same category as some of my other favorite literary characters—like the Phantom of the Opera and Elphaba—people who did not start out bad, but who perhaps become so (or at least go a bit rogue) due to how others mistreat or mis-perceive them based on their appearances.
I have a lot of sympathy for the monster in Frankenstein, and being able to regard him so fondly has, again, always been such a surprise to me. Especially when I think back on how I assumed the story about a monster would be. Which just goes to show that you never quite know what you’re getting with a book, that there are many unexpected characters to discover in the literary world, and that books you may initially be skeptical about can turn about to be favorites.
I hope this series has given you a chance to think about (or even re-read) your own favorites. Mark your calendars for next year’s Book Lovers Day!