Today's Fact

[yelladawg]

Monday, August 30, 2004
FRANKENSTEIN DAY


What would we do without the legendary monster created by Dr. Frankenstein! Thanks to author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, born on this day in 1797, we have been frighteningly entertained for almost two centuries. In 1818, Ms. Shelley wrote the Gothic horror novel about Dr. Henry Frankenstein, the scientist who created the terrifying, yet loveable, monster. (Mary Shelley was the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.)
Hollywood took over in 1931 with an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel directed by Great Britain’s James Whale. Boris Karloff was the monster, a role that led to a monster career for Karloff. From then on, Frankenstein lived in sequel after sequel and adaptation after adaptation. Karloff reprised his role in two such films -- The Bride of Frankenstein in 1935 and Son of Frankenstein in 1939.

The opening scene in The Bride of Frankenstein features the author, Mary Shelley. Ms. Shelley is played by Elsa Lanchester. Lon Chaney picked up the monster role following in the difficult, huge footsteps of Karloff.

Mary Shelley and Dr. Frankenstein really were on to something. The movie and TV industries continue to create Frankenstein spin-offs, thrilling ... or should we say, scaring the pants off new generations.

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. do you know the story behind the book???

well I'll tell you anyway...Lord Byron set a challenge for Mary Shelley, her husband (Percy Shelley) and himself to write the best ghost story. They all got to work on a short story and her story about the monster won the contest, and at age 18 she started writing the book that was not published until she was 21. Pretty impressive for an 18 year old girl to win a contest with those heavy weights in it.

[Aristus]

2. yelladawg, thanks for the report, but, have you READ 'Frankenstein????

The protagonist is Victor, not Henry, Frankenstein. And he wasn't a doctor, or even a medical student. He was a student of philosophy and the natural sciences. The creature, whom Frankenstiein named 'Adam', was terrifying, but not especially loveable. He could speak. And generally spoke in the measured, stentorian cadences of the villian of your typical gothic novel. (He learned to read from volumes of classics he found in a trunk in a ditch. Some plot point, huh?)

Anyway, treat yourself to a great read.