A Bit Bookish

Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow. Just wow. Lita Judge spent a summer reading the handwritten journals of Mary Shelley and then spent 5 years writing this story. It is told in free verse with over 300 pages of black & white watercolor illustrations.

To quote Tui T. Sutherland (author of the Wings of Fire series) "What an intensely, darkly beautiful book." Another reviewer said "extraordinary in both art and language." I wholeheartedly agree. Another reviewer: "...gripping text and heartbreaking images, the story unfolds like a gothic fairy tale--crackling with rage, riven with pain, and pulsating with ferocious beauty."

Some of the wonderful information Judge included: Mary Shelley was a pregnant teenage runaway when she wrote Frankenstein. She created the first industrial-age science fiction novel as well as the first "mad scientist," a character archetype utilized in many modern stories. The ideas in Frankenstein grew from lectures Mary attended; extensive reading; discussions with Shelley, Byron, and Polidori; and her knowledge of grisly experiments performed on the bodies of executed convicts from Newgate Prison.

In an era of heated debate about humanity's relationship to nature and God, Mary's Creature was also conceived as a warning to those who assume too much power over nature. Her call for caution still holds surprising relevance today, with ethical debates swirling around genetically modified crops, recombinant DNA technology, cloning, cloud seeding, and genetic screening of human fetuses.

The novel also challenged the idea that men alone, without women, could create life, overruling the laws of nature. She depicted her Creature as motherless, like herself.

With her writing and her life, Mary defied the restrictions put on women, and for two hundred years her Creature has lived on to inspire new stories, films, plays, and artwork, as well as ethical debates about science's role in humans' lives. It is a testament to the teenage Mary Shelley's strength and enduring genius.

Read this book!


View all my reviews