Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
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Frankenstein

Author: Mary Shelley

Narrator: Full Cast, Jamie Parker

Unabridged: 1 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/12/2012

Categories: Fiction, Horror

Synopsis

Mary Shelley's heart-breaking modern myth of obsession, pride and the need for love, dramatised for BBC Radio, starring Jamie Parker.

Frankenstein was written by a teenager and the story has all the energy and emotional intensity of this time of life. It's a thrilling, horrifying adventure, packed with incident and breath-taking moments. But the incident and surface horror are metaphors for deeper, ever relevant themes: the hubris of science and those who practise it without moral responsibility; society's attitudes to difference; the quest for love. Most importantly, it raises profound questions about children; the love/hate relationship between parents and adolescents; the guilt and pain suffered by both when it all goes wrong.

Dramatised by Lucy Catherine.
Directed by Marc Beeby.
Starring Jamie Parker as Frankenstein, with Shaun Dooley, Susie Riddell, Alun Raglan, Robert Blythe, Sam Alexander, Christine Alexander, Patrick Brennan, Bruce Alexander, Emma Hook, Joe Sims and Don Gilet. Music by Colin Guthrie.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2012.

©2012 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2012 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About Mary Shelley

The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, the ardent feminist and author of A Vindication on the Right of Women, and William Goodwin, the radical-anarchist philosopher and author of Lives of the Necromancers, Mary Goodwin was born into a free-thinking, revolutionary household in London on August 30, 1797. Educated mainly by her intellectual surroundings, she had little formal schooling, and at age sixteen, she eloped with the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelly; they eventually married in 1816.

Mary Shelly's life had many tragic elements: her mother died giving birth to Mary; her half-sister committed suicide; Percy's wife Harriet Shelly drowned herself and her unborn child after he ran off with Mary; William Goodwin disowned Mary and Shelly after the elopement but, heavily in debt, recanted and came to them for money; Mary's first child died soon after its birth; and in 1822 Percy Shelly drowned in the Gulf of La Spezia—Mary was not quite twenty-five then.

Mary did not begin to write seriously until the summer of 1816, when she and Shelly were living in Switzerland, neighbors to Lord Byron. One night following a contest to compose ghost stories, Mary conceived her masterpiece, Frankenstein. After her husband's death, she continued to write, publishing Valperga, The Last Man, Ladore, and Faulkner between 1823 and 1837, in addition to editing Percy's works. In 1838 she began to work on his biography, but due to poor health she completed only a fragment.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on August 26, 2022

3rd Review - August 2022 I read Frankenstein for a sixth time this week. Although it is one of my favourite novels, and in my opinion one of the finest pieces of fiction ever written, I find myself with a new appreciation of the text every time I come to it. A large proportion of one of my PhD cha......more

Goodreads review by Federico on March 26, 2023

Some monsters are not born, they are created by the cruelty around them. Victor Frankenstein is a scientist and alchemist obsessed with creating life. Neglecting his betrothed, friends and even himself, he devotes all energy and efforts to the construction of his Creation, an unspeakable thing for......more

Goodreads review by emma on July 25, 2024

Don’t get why everyone spends so much time talking about “the theme of science versus nature” and how this is “the world’s first science fiction novel” when clearly this is the world’s pre-eminent text on the subject of the dire consequences of procrastination. But whatever. This book rules. First off,......more

Goodreads review by Leonard on June 22, 2021

Mary Wollstonecraft, a teenager, was spending a vacation in Switzerland with her fiancé, Percy Shelley, their mutual friend, Lord Byron, and a few other people. Was the weather gloomy that summer of 1816? Were the companions bored to death? One evening, they challenged each other into writing the sc......more

Goodreads review by Bella on October 20, 2022

2nd read: scientists just don't re-animate corpses like they used to it's disappointing 1st read: All this time I thought I didn't like classics; turns out I just hadn't read the right ones. I can't help but feel empathy for Frankenstein's creature, and abhor humankind for its prejudice and malice that......more

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