What should you know before reading Frankenstein?
Frankenstein context & some important information ahead of the discussion in early November.
Hello folks,
It’s a pleasure to welcome so many new subscribers to the Classical Book Club. I really do hope you enjoy taking part.
Before I crack on with the main part of this post, I wanted to share a few quick bits of information.
Firstly, we’ll be discussing the novel over the weekend of the 2nd & 3rd November. This will take place within the Substack chat function (I’ll share links closer to). It’s just a quick heads up that you’ll need a Substack account of some kind to take part, and I appreciate that not everyone has set one of these up yet. You don’t need a publication - just a working account with which to chat via.
Secondly, every single person who takes part in the first discussion session will receive a lifetime paid subscription to this book club. It’s all totally free for you guys, but the content I’m preparing for each week does take quite a bit of time and so from next month will be paid only. If you can’t take part this month but you’re already subscribed, let me know and I’ll gift you with a lifetime comp as well.
Obviously, as the first members of this book club, you’ll receive all of this completely free… Forever! There’s no need to do anything, just take part as you are and I’ll comp you with a lifetime membership after the November discussion. For now, all these posts will be completely available and free to read.
What to know before reading Frankenstein?
I wanted to share some of the simple but most useful things to know before you start reading Frankenstein. There’s a ton of really interesting contextual and background information.
This is quite a brief post for now, as I’ll be sharing more throughout the coming weeks.
Rather simply, this context can be helpful prior to reading and might help you to notice some of the key themes within the novel.
Note: there are no spoilers in this post. I’ll always warn you in advance if there are any!
The Context
Mary Shelley was just 18 years old when she began writing Frankenstein. 20 when it was published. It’s an incredible feat to have achieved at such a young age, and it’s really interesting to think about whether you can notice how young she was when she wrote it.
The story originated from a ghost story contest among friends during a stay at the villa of Lord Byron (a famous poet) in Geneva, Switzerland, in the summer of 1816. She was there with her future husband, Percy Shelley (another famous poet). 1816 is known in history as the ‘Year Without a Summer’ due to a volcanic eruption that caused climate abnormalities, meaning global temperatures plummeted.
Because of this, despite it being summer the group of friends were set around a fire when Byron suggested that they each write a ghost story. Having struggled to think of an idea, Mary eventually was inspired by a discussion around the principle of life and the possible re-animation of a corpse. And so, from there, Frankenstein was born.
The other really key piece of context to note is that Frankenstein is a novel written during the Romantic era, a movement in art and literature with a new interest in human psychology, expression of personal feeling and interest in the natural world. It’s not romantic in the sense of romance novels that we know today, but rather that drive for individuality.
While you’re reading, consider those two things: can you sense Mary’s youth, and can you sense the inspiration of Romanticism.
Different Editions
There are a couple of different editions of Frankenstein. In 1831, Shelley revised the novel somewhat. If you’ve already purchased the novel, you are almost certainly reading the 1831 version as this is what is generally published. It might just be worth a quick check that you are reading the revised version, and not the complete original.
Shelley also wrote a preface for the 1831 edition, offering some insight into her creative processes and thoughts on the themes. I found a link to that preface, which you can read here. It makes for a really interesting insight ahead of reading, though also works if you would rather save it until afterwards.
For now, I’ll let you all crack on with reading the novel.
In the coming weeks, ahead of the book discussion at the start of November, I’m going to share some other pieces with you about some of the themes of the book & interesting discussion points. Some of these will contain spoilers. I will always pre-warn you in those posts, but it’s worth noting ahead of time.
There’s loads of interesting topics and themes from this novel, and I’m really looking forward to reading with you and discussing it all very soon.
Take care and I’ll be in touch again next week. Any questions in the meantime, you are always welcome to reply to this or comment/chat with me via Substack.
Happy reading!
Excellent introduction! I think it's also interesting as we begin the novel to note that Victor Frankenstein is German and the perception of Germans, which only changed with the advent of World War I, was especially those of romantic and philosophers.
I will also add that for non-fiction geeks out there, the dual biography of Mary Shelley and her mother Mary Wollstonecraft (by many considered to be the founder of modern feminism), "Romantic Outlaws" by Charlotte Gordon is excellent (I especially enjoyed the audiobook). It has some spoilers, so it could be considered more of a follow up to this read.
This will be my third reading, but my first time since reading the biography, so I'm looking forward to it!
Looking forward to having the opportunity to reread this magnificent novel and share insights with others. I've read it a few times, twice in academic studies, and I class it as one of my favourites, but as I get older my memory fades and it is certainly a book that rewards revisiting.