For the Ignatius Study Guide for Frankenstein, click here.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most influential and controversial novels of the nineteenth century; but has also become one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted. It has been vivisected critically by latter-day Victor Frankensteins who have transformed the meanings emergent from the novel into monsters of postmodern misconception. Rather than understanding Frankenstein and his monster through the lens of tradition, the moderns have seized upon the book and carried off bits to construct their own particular bogeymen.

A look at the essays

Ever wondered what grisly science surrounded the conception of Frankenstein? Jo Bath gives us an illuminating look at the period's fascination with electricity and the newly dead, and what Shelley may have known about it. 

In "Frankenstein as a Mythic Tragedy", Philip Nielsen takes on too-closely biographical readings of the work, contending it's to the realm of myth that we should look in order to understand Shelley's masterpiece. Thomas Stanford IIIwrestles with the common misconception that the monster's the villain in Frankenstein, plain and simple. Meanwhile, Aaron Urbanczyk investigates why Shelley chose to write her book as an "epistolary novel" — one told through letters — and why that may be just as monstrous as the plot itself.

Joseph Pearce situates the reader with the introductory essay.