Monday, May 12, 2008

Frankenstein meanderings

I was just looking around Frankensteinia when I remembered my illustrated copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I scanned it a while ago and posted it on FFH's Flickr.

I got this years ago. The cover creeped me out. Each illustration was more startling than the first. (I didn't read this copy. I have a small pocketbook for reading. It's too easy to get rapped up in the images of this one.) The watercolour appeals to me. It has a dreamy quality. I find Robert Andrew Parker's Monster to be scarier than Karloff's. Karloff is intensly sympathetic. This Monster looks just like that: a Monster. Parts of dead bodies stitched together by a mad sceintist in an attempt to create a living being. Creepy.

Frankenstein and his Monster are engraved on our collective minds. Pop Culture has been loaded with Frankie since circa 1931. TV commercials for credit cards, fingerpuppets, cereal, films upon films! Frankenstein and his Monster are immortal... It's marvelous!

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