Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
I've read the novel Frankenstein again recently, for the first time in years. And I've realised that its not very good!
There's very little detail to anything that happens in the book. The construction of the creature, the wedding, Victor concocting an excuse to travel to England - each is brushed over in a single line. Far more time and attention is spent on repetitive ansty whining from both Victor and his creation, paragraph after paragraph of anguished whining.
The name Frankenstein doesn't even get used until Chapter 3 - 4, if you count the prologue letters, which are in total greater than any individual chapter! And then, you can only realise it refers to Victor through context, as he chides himself! Were it not also the title of the novel, that might even be a doubtful conclusion. His mother's maiden name, the surname of Elizabeth's family, even Henry Clerval, all get name-checked before the eponymous character's name! That's just shoddy.
The basic idea is great, as the many works it's inspired over the centuries can attest to, but this initial presentation of it is pretty poor. Stripping out all the repetitive introspection would leave a tight short story. It's padded out, and in all the wrong places. Everything is told, not shown (makes sense, given the framing device, I suppose).
There's very little detail to anything that happens in the book. The construction of the creature, the wedding, Victor concocting an excuse to travel to England - each is brushed over in a single line. Far more time and attention is spent on repetitive ansty whining from both Victor and his creation, paragraph after paragraph of anguished whining.
The name Frankenstein doesn't even get used until Chapter 3 - 4, if you count the prologue letters, which are in total greater than any individual chapter! And then, you can only realise it refers to Victor through context, as he chides himself! Were it not also the title of the novel, that might even be a doubtful conclusion. His mother's maiden name, the surname of Elizabeth's family, even Henry Clerval, all get name-checked before the eponymous character's name! That's just shoddy.
The basic idea is great, as the many works it's inspired over the centuries can attest to, but this initial presentation of it is pretty poor. Stripping out all the repetitive introspection would leave a tight short story. It's padded out, and in all the wrong places. Everything is told, not shown (makes sense, given the framing device, I suppose).