On Making Fiction Frankenstein and the Life of Stories by Friederike Danebrok

On Making Fiction

Frankenstein and the Life of Stories by Friederike Danebrok by Transcript was a book suggested thanks to a newsletter sent by Columbia University Press. I accepted to read this book with enthusiasm. 

The book is divided in three parts, treats the book in the main parts plus movies etc inspired by the beloved book by Mary Shelley.  It is a fascinating reading for many reasons. 

This one of Frankenstein is, in fact, an interesting story and the heart of the book, when It will be impossible the thinking of a different escapism when the creature becomes real: from there, the main topic, the elaboration of the story and what there will be in the between will be driven by an important and crucial analysis: what he does look like and and what he is supposed to look like the creature invented by Victor. 

That the invention of Victor is a complete failure is more than known. Our man escapes away immediately after having seen the final result of his hard work...alive.

But there is not just this: through the appearance of this creature, there are other emblematical passages: the maturation, personal growth, and choices made by the creature as well. 

Unfortunately the intelligence and culture accumulated by the monster can't be lived divided by a body that remains his biggest problem because it will be a body never accepted by the society and no one will live in with serenity or normality. This condition changes a peaceful and altruistic guy in a terrible homicidiary creature: and only because he wants to be accepted: accepted by his creator, accepted by the rest of the world.

Some example of productions you'll find in the book. 

The analysis of James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein in 1935, a movie that follows the first one created years before, reminding me for the modality in which it was created at a novel of Boccaccio. There are in fact three protagonists, the writer of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley all together in a house, "trapped" during a stormy night, in which stories of phantoms, spirits and whatever there is in the between have a certain appeal. 

Penny Dreadful differently mix characters of the historical horror: not just Victor Frankenstein but also Dracula and Dorian Gray for naming some of them.

I thank Columbia Press and Transcript for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria polidori