Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Teaser Tuesday 193: Frankenstein

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!



I have just started Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for a Goodreads classics group read. This is my first tiem reading the novel, though it has been in my possession for some years. This is from chapter four:



Some miracle might have produced it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable. After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.








ABOUT THE BOOK:

To many readers, who have perhaps known Frankenstein only at second hand, the original may well come as a surprise. When Mary Shelley began it, she was only 18, though she was already Shelley's mistress and Byron's friend. In her preface she explains how she and Shelley spent part of a wet summer with Byron in Switzerland, amusing themselves by reading and writing ghost stories. Her contribution was Frankenstein, a story about a student of natural philosophy who learns the secret of imparting life to a creature constructed from bones he has collected in charnel-houses. The story is not a study of the macabre, as such, but rather a study of how man uses his power, through science, to manipulate and pervert his own destiny, and this makes it a profoundly disturbing book




14 comments:

Alice Audrey said...

My dd just mentioned this book and author. She learned about the writing session in school and was thoroughly impressed.

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I do like the sound of this...thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.

Unknown said...

I really have to read this. I just love gothic literature.

http://carabosseslibrary.blogspot.com/2013/10/teaser-tuesdays_22.html

Udita Banerjee said...

Brilliant book!
http://cupandchaucer.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/teaser-tuesday-october-22/

Heather said...

Alice: Small world! The book does have an interesting history. Reading it also has me wanting to watch Young Frankenstein again. Maybe this weekend... :D

Heather said...

Laurel-Rain: Thanks, I am eager to get further into the book, and am hoping it is a fast read.

Heather said...

Valentina: I like gothic lit as well, and it doesn't get more gothic than this, does it?

Heather said...

Udita: I take it you have read it? I hope to get further into it tonight.

Yvonne said...

I never read this one, but it's one I've been wanting to read.

Heather said...

Yvonne: It's one I've been wanting to read for a while, too, so was glad to see it nominated and chosen for our October group read.

Shelley Munro said...

Such an interesting history behind the story.

Heather said...

Shelley: There is indeed. I confess, though, that I have skipped the 50+ page introduction. It is my experience that intros tend to assume you've already read the book and include spoilers. So, I do not read them before reading the book. Then I might go back and skim it.

kayerj said...

I've never read this book but I enjoyed your teaser.

Heather said...

Thanks, Kelley!