The Original Frankenstein My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Original Frankenstein was such an amazing read, and a clever way to put a book together. Using original manuscripts, Charles Robinson recreates Mary Shelley’s original full draft of Frankenstein. He also gives us a draft that Mary continued to work on but also saw editorial modifications and about 5,000 new words added by her husband, the poet Percy Shelley. The author also situates these drafts within the creation process of this foundational novel.

The first time I read Frankenstein, it was the one most people see today, a version of the 1831 edition, which was released as one volume. A few years ago, I read the original, 3-volume 1818 edition. There were several drafts of the novel, the first of which is sadly no longer extant. Other early rough drafts are also gone. But, the Bodleian Library at University of Oxford has a draft from 1816-1817 includes Mary’s work along with editorial and content added by her husband, Percy.

Robinson attempts to remove all of Percy’s interventions in the 1816-1817 draft, and presents us with a good-faith recreation of Mary’s original writing. He also includes an edited version of the Bodleian draft. These two drafts are very different from the 1818 and 1831 published editions. The original drafts called for a 2-volume work of 33 chapters instead of the 3-volume 23 chapters version published in 1818. This may seem trivial, but the draft version significantly increases the pacing and drama of the novel. Chapters fly by and the break points seem much more natural. Exciting scenes, like when the creature say “I shall be with you on your marriage night” now end a chapter instead of being in the middle of one.

I prefer Mary’s original draft. It is easier to read, more visceral, fast-paced yet still engaged and reflective. At times, Percy’s embellishments add too many words or melodramatic phrasing that slows the pacing and obfuscates Mary’s original intentions. At other times, his editorial input makes the novel more readable. As I see it, Percy acted like a modern editor. He did not write Frankenstein, but massaged it (both good and bad), along with Mary, into the final product we have today.

I really enjoyed reading this book and putting a 3rd and 4th version of this novel under my hat. Each time I read it, I get a little more out of it. This is partly due to revisiting an old friend. But it’s also because I’ve added new cultural knowledge since the previous reading. Let me give an example. The creature, who is literate and philosophical in Shelley’s novel, unlike the monster from the awful movie adaptations, stumbles across three books in the woods near a place where he has been sheltering. They were Milton’s Paradise Lost, Goethe’s Sorrows of Werter (originally, the Sorrows of Young Werther), and a volume from Plutarch’s Lives. When I first read Frankenstein, I’d heard of Milton (via Star Trek) but not the others. The second time I read the novel, I’d read some of Milton, but was still unfamiliar with the other two books. This time, I’ve read even more Milton and have digested Goethe’s book and parts of Plutarch. Knowledge of their themes enhances the impact of Frankenstein for me. The ideas of creation, longing, meaning and the greater world enhance the creature’s humanity and help one relate better to his situation, and that of Frankenstein. These are books that Mary and Percy Shelley read and impacted them and their writing. Encountering them helps put the reader into the same boat as the author, as it were.

This book was definitely worth the 5 stars I gave it.