Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

What better way to celebrate the Halloween season than with the heart-stopping, classic tale of Frankenstein? Inscriptions’ readers recently named this book their second all-time favorite horror novel, just behind Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Ironically enough, Frankenstein began as a whimsical dare to pass the time. While spending the summer with poet Lord Byron, Mary, her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Byron himself were unexpectedly confined indoors by an unrelenting rain. To pass the idle hours, Byron suggested they each write a ghost story. Though the muse was slow to strike, when it finally did, Mary was consumed. Her resulting ghost story was expanded into the full-length, infamous Frankenstein.

The setting alone, with its descriptive imagery of murky black waters, suffocating icecaps and towering mountains are enough to raise fear its readers, but the true terror begins with young Victor Frankenstein’s obsession with life and death. Consumed with such otherworldly possibilities, he sets out to create a new form of life, but the finished product is so shockingly forbidden and horrific that even he cannot find the courage to face it.

Thus an unloved, unwanted beast is unleashed upon the world, left to wander the Swiss countryside. And, though it attempts to garner some human companionship, the monster is entirely rejected for its hideousness. Undesired by all, the creature sets out to destroy its creator because: 1) even Victor himself is unable to love his own creation and 2) the young scientist refuses to give the beast a companion of its own species to love. What follows is a maddening cycle of revenge whereby creature Frankenstein brings down its foe not by killing him, but by causing Victor the same kind of grief and suffering it feels is its own cursed lot in life.

Basic in its message yet so sheerly terrifying in its methods, it’s no wonder Frankenstein has stood the test of time. Turn on all the lights then sit back and be prepared for the scare of a lifetime.

Best places to buy this book online (from BookFinder.com) Note: Prices are subject to change

1. Paperback (Used) Half.com $0.20
2. Paperback (New) 1Bookstreet.com $1.00
3. Paperback (New) Barnes & Noble.com $1.00 Click on the "Buy Now" button at the top of this article.

Be sure to check out the online auctions, too. Name your price! Also, try your local library, where every book is free!

Coming November 1: Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson

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