materials upon which to experiment, concealing
his activities from everyone. Eventually he
achieves his goal, after a fashion, though his mon-
ster varies considerably from the film interpreta-
tion in that it is intelligent and more human in
appearance. Despite Frankenstein’s early optimism,
however, there is clearly something wrong with his
creation, and it eventually escapes and then
launches a campaign of terror and revenge against
its creator’s family.
Although the monster is dangerous, physically
daunting at eight feet in height, and lacks a soul, it
is difficult not to feel some sympathy for its plight,
and when the novel concludes with it drifting off
alone to an unknown fate, it is not a moment of
triumph for the reader. It is Frankenstein who is
the true villain, because he acted without thinking,
took risks without considering the consequences,
and brought death and misfortune to the inno-
cents around him while not directly suffering him-
self. Even as he nears his own death at last, he
refuses to express regret for what he has accom-
plished, holding out hope that others will replicate
and continue his work to accomplish even greater
achievements. Frankenstein and his monster are
the literary forebears of many fictional stories of
unintended disaster, from the Terminatormovies to
countless novels of runaway plagues, genetically al-
tered animals, selectively bred superhumans, and
various other terrors.
The novel has also generated several direct se-
quels and alternate versions, both in film and in
book form. Most of the novels have been as deriva-
tive and forgettable as the bulk of the movies, of
which there are more than 40 to date, including
the delightful spoof Young Frankenstein(1974). A
few novels have made better use of their source
material, however. The Memoirs of Elizabeth
Frankenstein(1995) by Theodore Roszak, for ex-
ample, tells the story from the point of view of
Frankenstein’s wife, an active participant in the
project who well deserves her eventual death at
the hands of the creature. Roszak pushes the story
into the openly supernatural, describing Elizabeth’s
occult contributions to the raising of the dead.
FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND(1973) by Brian W. Ald-
iss uses the point of view of an inadvertent time
traveler from our era who becomes a witness to the
efforts made to create a bride for the monster,
drawing upon both the novel and the film The
Bride of Frankenstein(1935). The most subtle of
these sequels is Brittle Innings(1994) by Michael
Bishop, in which the monster has survived into the
20th century by altering its appearance and be-
coming highly educated, although it supports itself
playing minor league baseball, a premise that might
have been comic, although Bishop treats the sub-
ject seriously. The passage of years has rendered
Shelley’s prose style very difficult for casual read-
ers, but the essential plot of the novel and the
questions of scientific ethics that it raised are as
gripping and relevant today as they were in the
early 19th century.Frankenstein UnboundBrian W. Aldiss
(1973)
The classic novel FRANKENSTEIN(1818) by Mary
SHELLEYmay or may not be science fiction as well
as horror, depending upon how one defines the two
genres. Brian W. Aldiss, primarily known as a sci-
ence fiction writer, has claimed it for that genre and
also wrote one of the most interesting of the many
sequels and alternate versions that have appeared
during the 20th century. Joe Bodenland is an
American from the near future who finds himself
transported by inexplicable but clearly scientifically
rational means back to 19th-century Switzerland,
where he meets Mary Shelley herself but where he
also discovers that Victor Frankenstein is a real per-
son who did, in fact, create a monstrous creature.
Undeterred by the flawed results, Frankenstein in-
tends to continue his experiments.
Bodenland has the advantage over his new
contemporaries in that he knows how the story will
turn out, although as is usual in such fictional situ-
ations, it is very difficult for him to affect the
course of events. Frankenstein is planning to cre-
ate a mate for his creature by cobbling together
parts from corpses, but the monster is impatient,
demanding, and impulsive. The protagonist finds
himself becoming romantically involved with Shel-
ley, and in fact the best parts of the novel are those
that involve his interaction with her and the circle
of literary figures who were her friends rather than
those involving the monster or its obsessed creator.122 Frankenstein Unbound