Day 01 - Dreams & Ambitions #BookReviewBlogChallenge

Find info about this challenge here. Keep up with prompts here.

And you can still sign up until the 25th here. 

My copy of Frankenstein

The first official prompt for the Book Review Blog Challenge hosted by Ann over at Great New Reads, is dreams and ambitions. I know a few people are probably going to pick self-help books or memoirs of people achieving their dreams/ambitions, but those aren't typically my jam (and I honestly couldn't think of any I actually own that would fit the bill).

So, if you couldn't tell, I'm using Frankenstein for this prompt. Victor Frankenstein had a dark dream and enough ambition to fulfill it. Didn't really work out for him in the end, and he knew it, but boy is it a trip.

I read this waaay back in high school. Gave it a four out of five stars. I loved it - it's truly a masterpiece and Mary Shelley was one of the original mothers of horror. Though, I'd argue this has more sci-fi elements than true horror, but another Ted talk, another day.

"For when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion, which afterwards ruled my destiny, I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys."

Without Victor's ambition, there is no story. He put aside health and family and happiness in his pursuit of this other, perverse form of life. It destroyed him and pretty much everyone he loved. I like how the story is relayed, being told to other people. It's a cool format that can be done poorly, but is done well here. You don't see it too often.

A fun tidbit: the whole lightening bring to life thing that most people associate with the monster... that's not how it's written in the book at all. It's pretty ambiguous actually. Some sorta science-y stuff that he's studying. The first movie in 1910 (which most people haven't actually seen - it's 13 or so minutes, watch it here) has a pretty good vague interpretation of how he pulled it off. This short film is really interesting! The practical effects on how they filmed creating the monster are really cool! The 'it's alive!' moment is more associated with the 1931 movie, which is pretty great in its own right.

This is due for a reread (I actually started reading it when I pulled it down for the picture) but man, I have too much on the docket now so it'll have to wait.

Have you read this one? What's your favorite classic?