 Did you read it in high school? So I have four editions of Frankenstein. It probably makes people hate it more often than not. Modern masterpiece, it's just so good. Thank you guys for singing it, and I'm here today to talk about Frankenstein. Shout out to Lit Emporium for this amazing Frankenstein design. It says, beware for I am fearless and therefore powerful. She has a quote from Frankenstein. I love this sweater, it's super comfy. So I'll leave a link in the description. I'm not sponsored by them. I just, you know, had to have a Frankenstein sweater and some time at Frankenstein had to wear it, right? Okay, any who sees. Let's talk about Frankenstein and about the dark descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. I have talked about both on my channel before, but I just wanted to do a highlight special individual video because Frankenstein, it's just so good. And it's just the season for things like Frankenstein. I also want to take this opportunity to show off my collection of Frankenstein editions. So let's do that first. So I have four editions of Frankenstein, one of which was a gift. So let's do that one first. This is the Chiltern Publishing Edition, which was sent to me by Evie. So thank you so, so much Evie for this. Evie also loves Frankenstein. We, I guess have bonded over that. So this is such a gorgeous edition. It kind of has the look of like peacock feathers. I don't know how, I feel like it's so shiny that I don't know how well you can actually see what it looks like on camera, but just trust me, I'm gonna put a picture of it without being so shiny. So you can see, but it's just such a gorgeous edition. And then the pages are also like gold edged. And it has a little eight cloth bookmark. Boy, the nice touch. So I've always, I've been wanting a Chiltern book for a while, but they originally released only like four and they weren't any classics that were like my favorites. It was like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Austin. I think Pride and Prejudice, probably Pride and Prejudice, and I don't know, something else. And I was just like, they're gorgeous, especially Jane Eyre. Honestly, like Jane Eyre is so pretty, their edition of it. Just aesthetically alone, that's my favorite. But yeah, so when they finally released Frankenstein, they added that to their collection. They've added a lot more since then. When they added Frankenstein, I was like, now that's a classic that I want. And they're also like this edition of it. I like the aesthetic they chose for it. It fits Frankenstein in my opinion. So anyway, super gorgeous. Thank you so much, Evie. Then I have this edition, which has illustrations and an introduction by Stephen King. And I didn't even know about this edition. A patron told me about it. And I immediately then went out and ordered it. And then I forgot to haul it because I did film a couple hauls after I bought this. And then I just was like, oh fuck Frankenstein. But it has incredible illustrations in it. So it's just, it's just amazing. Oh, look at this. Just look at this. And it's a nice hardcover. It's just a solid, solid edition. And it's not too terribly expensive. When I heard about it, I was like, well, I'm gonna be shelling out for that. And it was like $17 or something on Amazon. So yeah, gorgeous. Then I have the Paper Mill Press edition, which like looks kind of leathery, but it's not, it's cloth. So it's like a little bit floppy. It's just a very nice one to hold. It kind of has the kind of velvety, kind of felty kind of feel to it. And I just think that this cover is low key my favorite of all of them. Like the children one is gorgeous, but this is just so dramatic. The way that the green shines. And like, I just, oh, this one is just drama-rama and Frankenstein is drama-rama. So love, love, love this cover. It doesn't have any like cool illustrations or anything. It's just, you know, a normal book, but I do. And it's a really nice like size and shape to hold because of kind of how it's a little bit floppy. So how they recommend this edition as well. And last I have, who makes this? The Word Cloud Classics, Canterbury Classics. They again, they have, I really, I really want Peter Pan and Frankenstein, not Frankenstein. Peter Pan and Bambi Opera in this style. I have the Jungle Book as well in this style. So yeah, it has like a Word Cloud. That's why it's a Word Cloud classic. And it has like some quotes on the back or a longer quote. Then the end pages have like the classic Frankenstein monster from Hollywood, which like I hate what Hollywood did to Frankenstein, but I mean, this does look cool and it's orange and orange is my favorite color. So, one's not to love. So yeah, those are all my editions of Frankenstein, the jelly. And of course I am currently burning my Victor Frankenstein candle because if there's a time to burn a Victor Frankenstein candle, it is now. Which then brings us to the Dark Descendables with Frankenstein. This is the only edition. I mean, there's a paperback one. This is just the hard cover or so. This is not to show it off or anything, but we're here to talk about this as well. Into the meat of the video, Frankenstein. Did you read it in high school? Did you skip it? Did you pretend to read it? Did you just check the spark notes? Frankenstein is one of those books that is a lot of the time required reading. And I feel like anytime a book is required reading, the chances of you actually loving it are just immediately diminished because your association with it is like schoolwork and being forced into it and not wanting to. And it's just such a shame. I also was forced to read Frankenstein in school. And at the time, I know that I didn't appreciate it. For one, because I was being forced into it, so I was not pleased. And I was just like, ugh. I definitely skimmed it just enough so that I could do the assignments. And I remember at the time thinking that the conversations that we had in class about it thinking, oh, it's kind of interesting. It's kind of deep, but yeah. And it's only later in life that I really came to a retroactively appreciate it. And then also reacquaint myself with it. And then I saw the play of it as well, like three, four times, four times. I think I've seen the play four times. And again, to reread the book itself and to just kind of really delve into the story as a now more mature person who's seen more of the world, understands more of the world and also understands more about classics in general, the context of Mary Shelley, what the world was like when she wrote this and how staggering an achievement it is for her at the time. And just so much about it that I've just come to so much more deeply appreciate since then. And so like, well, I'm grateful, I guess, that schools make you read it because I think it's great. I hate that it probably makes people hate it more often than not. So if you were forced to read it in school and that was the only time you ever read it, I would entreat you to consider reexamining it, reacquainting yourself with it. Because for one, as all these editions should have made abundantly clear, it's a really short book. I have books on myself that are this long by themselves and this is four different books or four different copies. Like this little children one, like look at how short this is. It's not very long at all. What it is is honestly a work of philosophy. I know it's horror and for the time it certainly was horror. And a lot of things in it are horrific but they're horrific on a psychological level more so than like violence or body horror or anything like that. It is a dated, certainly a bit and especially in terms of like the pacing and the structure of it. It's told, the pacing is much slower. It takes a lot more time to kind of just philosophize which completely halts the plot. But that said, there isn't really that much of a plot. It isn't like the point of it more is the philosophizing and so in that sense it's kind of like Dune but just Dune is way longer, I don't like Dune as much. Frankenstein is about two opposing forces, two opposing worldviews and neither of which is comfortable. Neither of which makes you feel like, well that's the good guy and that's the bad guy. It isn't ever that easy but by observing Victor Frankenstein who's telling the story and is arguably an unreliable narrator and the monster. And yes, the monster is not called Frankenstein which just drives me nuts when people call the monster Frankenstein. But anyway, Victor is this sort of armchair intellectual who just believes that he has the right to do something because he can and at this point it's kind of almost a trite idea, the fact that, oh, the real monster is within, the real monster is humanity. But I mean, Mary Shelley was among the first to write a book that asks that question that poses that situation where you come away from this and it's not that simple either. It's not a situation where you're like, oh well clearly even though the monster looks horrific but he's actually the good guy. He's actually the good one and Victor is the evil one. It's not that simple either because the monster does horrific and unforgivable things as does Victor. So it's not a story where you have clear cut, good and evil. It's not a story where you can read it and decide, oh well, they should have done this or oh well, this was the right thing to do or this was the wrong thing to do. It's just so much more complicated and the sort of philosophical questions it asks with allusion to sort of biblical imagery where the monster addresses Victor as his maker as like a human to his God and asks, why did you make me? And why would you punish me thus? And so this becomes like a really unsettling allegory when you view it in those terms and it is unapologetic about framing it in those terms where humans throughout time have wondered why their God, why their maker would allow humans to suffer, why they would abandon them alone on earth with nothing to guide them, no one to care for them which is what Victor does. And we regard Victor's behavior as reprehensible but when the monster frames it as like you made me why would you do this to me? Then that makes people view it in the terms of a God to man and why would you do that to your creation? We regard Victor's behavior as monstrous but arguably if you believe in such things if you believe in God the parallel is unavoidable that is the same situation of being abandoned of feeling isolated and alone and why? Why did you make me? Why am I alone? Why must I suffer? So just the constant kind of references to Paradise Lost because the monster teaches himself to well he doesn't teach himself he's conveniently taught to read. There's a lot of plot conveniences but I allow for them because I feel like the project of the book isn't to tell a realistic story about survival it's to tell a story of like philosophy and conflicting worldviews and to just ask unsettling questions and so a lot of plot contravences occur in order to enable those situations in order to enable these characters to have these conversations which is more the point and it's also because of the time in which it was written it was already groundbreaking for its time and so nowadays we'd read it and think that she kind of pulled her punches and it's kind of like why is Victor being framed as the hero? Well for one he's telling the story he's an unreliable narrator so my camera went out of battery and I had to charge it so I don't know exactly where I left off but I think I was in the middle of telling you why Frankenstein is a philosophical masterpiece. Yeah and okay yeah I was talking about how the parallels between like God and humans and Victor Frankenstein as the maker of the creature forces the reader to identify some unsettling parallels between what's going on and who they are in this story and who you should be maybe not should be but who you find yourself identifying with it's hard to identify with I mean you think you'd identify with the human the flesh and blood born you know of woman human being that is Victor and yet you can't really identify with a creator of a life someone who's successfully animated human flesh you can far more identify with the lonely bereft monster who doesn't understand why he was made and then why he was abandoned and again the fact that he learns how to read like the first thing that he reads is paradise lost and of course then he starts drawing these parallels himself which of course like oh yeah and I was talking about how the nature of the story telling is more contrived like it's a lot of plot conveniences because the point of the story is to have these sort of philosophical questions and conversations more so than a plot that is like realistic in any way and the fact that Victor Frankenstein is painted more or less as the hero but again there's two reasons for it that I think makes sense for one the time in which this was written of course Mary Shelley wrote it that way but she builds in the fact that Victor Frankenstein is an unreliable narrator so he's framed as the hero to offer plausible deniability for the author but you come away from it not really feeling like Victor is the hero because what Victor did is monstrous and Victor kind of is self pitting about it and the way that he tells his own story to the guy looking after him the guy looking after him marvels at how heroic and noble the soul of Victor Frankenstein is and I personally at least as a modern reader I read that and go like oh please and again I think that's why Frankenstein has stood the test of time and why they continue to make you read it in school even though that's not necessarily the best way to get people to love Frankenstein which the foreword by Stephen King in this edition kind of itself speaks to the fact that you were probably forced to read it you probably didn't like it and like that's maybe not the best way to get people to read it however you should revisit it because there's a lot to it so all about to say Frankenstein itself is a masterpiece and it has a lot to pick apart a lot of things to sort of ruminate on once you have read it and it's absolutely worth revisiting if you only read it in school and it's definitely worth revisiting just on a regular basis because you'll catch things that you didn't before and it's always food for thought I never leave Frankenstein whether it's the play or rereading the book I always come away from it feeling like I've gained new perspectives and insights on life and to the human condition and I'm just more and more staggered by Mary Shelley who I mean a woman in her time period having written something like this is just as a piece of history staggering which then brings me to The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kirsten White this book is a modern masterpiece it is a master class in how to write a text that is basically in conversation with another text because this isn't, I mean it is a retelling of Frankenstein but when I think of retellings I think of it as taking the plot and setting it elsewhere with different characters but enacting similar events so like a Beauty and the Beast retelling is like the same plot events more or less depending on the retelling and the same like structure for like the situation but then it is transported to different times and places different situations that's what changes so in that sense this is not a retelling this is just a telling of Frankenstein because the events of Frankenstein I don't want to give away any spoilers so some things do change about Frankenstein here but it's not taking the story of Frankenstein and now like setting it in the modern day or setting it in a different place or making it magical or anything like that it's Frankenstein like Victor Frankenstein is a student who figures out how to reanimate flesh and creates this monster and that monster goes on a murderous rampage out of grief and revenge and it's just it's Frankenstein however it's told from the perspective of Elizabeth Lavenza who in the original story of Frankenstein she's hardly a character like that if any I mean I guess that would be a flaw there's a flaw in Frankenstein which again it's a product of its time so it centers this white male protagonist and then it's and this creature that he makes and like Elizabeth is kind of just an afterthought she's just also there and it's kind of more of a plot device she's more sort of symbolic of purity and innocence and goodness and that's kind of it there isn't a whole lot to Elizabeth Frankenstein she's just kind of the damsel so it would never have occurred to me to tell the story from Elizabeth Lavenza's perspective because I'd be like who cares about Elizabeth she's like barely in it like she's not important and yet Kirsten White does an incredible job fleshing out the internal journey of the character of Elizabeth Lavenza what it would be like to because like when you read Frankenstein or if you see the play you are obviously following Victor and the creature so by the time Elizabeth is involved or you see Elizabeth like you know more than she does like you already know what Victor's been up to and now you know why she might be in danger anytime Victor's being cryptic about something you know what he's talking about but so telling it from her perspective it lends a new and unsettling color to everything because even though you know the book kind of assumes and rightly so that you know what Victor's been up to but obviously Elizabeth doesn't know so when she's piecing together what Victor has been up to it's really chilling because to see it through the eyes of somebody who is not being like yeah well he reanimated flesh you're of course that's not a conclusion that you would leap to so you're watching her follow these clues and figure things out and her mounting horror as she begins to accept what has to have been the case what it is that he's been up to and in addition to that because that by itself would be a fun new fresh perspective to encounter Frankenstein through but moreover Elizabeth Levenza is not a damsel in distress she's actually has far more agency and without changing a whole lot about the story of Frankenstein more so it just kind of examines the things that are happening off screen because like Elizabeth Levenza knew Victor when they were kids this is known you never really see that in Frankenstein in the book but they knew each other when they were kids and that's why she's his bride and she's been living a life so now examining her internal journey what it would have been like growing up with Victor would, I mean we'd heard the story of Frankenstein from Victor's perspective in which he heroizes himself in his own telling of his life history but seeing it through Elizabeth's perspective really puts the lie to Victor's version of events and if he's made her out to be this like sweet damsel this representation of innocence in his mind which he clearly has in his version of events which Mary Shelley tells that isn't necessarily the case and it may be a facade it may be a persona that Elizabeth Levenza has been forced into putting on for her own survival because if that is what is expected of her if that is what Victor wants well it's her in her best interests to deliver that so she becomes immediately a more interesting character because a lot of things about her that seem plain and boring and two dimensional and shallow about her characterization in original Frankenstein now become a choice on her part they become a strategy on her part and that is so much more interesting so examining her character examining the way that her perspective on what Victor's up to completely changes what Victor is like his characterization because he's not the one telling it so her version of how he is and what seems to be his motivation and how he treats her is just a fresh take and then there are some changes to the story of Frankenstein which again they to me seem I don't know if warranted is the right word but they seem to me it's appropriate that events would change as far as we only ever got the story of what happened from Victor why should we believe that he told it true so if we're hearing it from Elizabeth's perspective now I mean the events may not be the way that Victor said they were he's an unreliable biased narrator so he might have left stuff out he might have reframed events and described them differently maybe Elizabeth is also an unreliable narrator but then that's the difference between the two stories it's not like well what if I just changed it I mean you are changing it by telling it differently but there is built in doubt in the original story so this takes the opportunity presented by that built in doubt and runs with it beautifully and it is because it's a modern author and a modern style of storytelling well it pays great homage and respect to the source material and it's still in keeping with that style enough to where it doesn't feel like wildly different and wildly modern it is still constructed in a more fast paced way in a way that is more close third person character driven events happen more speedily people don't really monologue as much as they do in the original Frankenstein it's clippier, snappier, more atmospheric versus the older form of storytelling the Mary Shelley House where it's just wordier so it's still wonderfully written it's not like super basic modern quippy prose it still has this sort of like or old timey style compared to other books written nowadays but it is still more modern than the original Frankenstein so for a modern audience and with this sort of feminist twist of following Elizabeth instead of Victor it's just, it's just Jeff's kiss and a book by itself like if you've never read Frankenstein and you just wanted to pick this up I think it's a good book that I think you would enjoy but it is just so much more when you've read Frankenstein because the way that it plays with the original Frankenstein and is kind of in response to it a conversation with it it's just so, so good 11 out of 10, so, so good this is how you do it so if you read nothing else this spooky time season I highly recommend you read Frankenstein and The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein these books are meaty oh so spooky atmospheric and unsettling and isn't that what we want in Spooky Time? let me know in the comments down below if you've read Frankenstein if you enjoyed it or not if you've read The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein if you enjoyed it or not if you've read them both if you agree or disagree with me about my assessment of both or either whatever you wanna let me know I post videos on Saturdays other random times as well but not on Saturdays so like and subscribe and join my Patreon if you're also inclined and I'll see you when I see you bye