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Frankenstein
By the time Mary Shelley completed her historic novel Frankenstein in 1817, the industrial revolution was fully under way. It was in this environment of rapid technological and economic development that not only the novel itself was forged, full of anxiety about man’s relationship with scientific progress, but its reception as well. At the beginning of the 19th century, wages were rising and a burgeoning middle class was emerging. The reading culture and social context surrounding Frankenstein is one that would not look terribly unfamiliar to a modern observer.
However, there was still a long way to go before contemporary novels would become a product that everyone could enjoy. 500 copies of the first edition of Shelley’s novel were sold by the printer Lackington & Co at ten shillings and six pence apiece1 – several days wages for an average laborer at the time2, making a book like Frankenstein a luxury to which most of the working class would not have had access. In addition, even by 1820 literacy rates in Great Britain were only 53%, with men tending to be more likely and women less likely to be literate.3 In this sense, literacy still had not fully detached itself from conventional power structures, with wealthy men reading the most and poor women reading the least.
In fact, it was not the printed version of Shelley’s book that made her famous, but an 1823 theatrical adaptation by Richard Peake. It was this much more accessible format that truly put her on the map. “But lo and behold! I found myself famous,” Shelley wrote in a letter, “Frankenstein had prodigious success as a drama, and was about to be repeated, for the twenty-third night, at the English Opera House.” As a result of the success of the play, Shelley’s father, the political philosopher William Godwin, decided to have a new edition of the book published.4
Frankenstein was first published on January 1st 1818 in London. During this time period, popular writing genres were Gothic, Romantic , and drama. The popularity of the latter can be seen in the book itself, when Frankenstein recounts how Henry Clerval "tried to make [Frankenstein and his siblings] act plays…” (19). However, Frankenstein can’t be characterized into any of these genres. While Frankenstein has Gothic elements in it including an emphasis on nature and horror, it does not fit into the Gothic genre. Gothic revolves around sinister and evil plots, while Frankenstein focuses more on imagination and experimentation with technology. Another uncommon aspect about Frankenstein is that it is written by a female, something almost unheard of during this time period where the female literacy rate was less than 50%.
Thus, Frankenstein was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. The Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine in March of 1818 referred to it as a “very bold fiction” 6 and The Gentleman’s Magazine in April 1818 called it “the production of no ordinary writer.” 7 People were shocked that a female wrote it and The London Literary Gazette wrote in November 1831 that Frankenstein is “certainly one of the most original works that ever proceeded from a female pen.” 8 Frankenstein is so original that it is even claimed to have formed it’s own genre. Brian Aldiss wrote in “Billion Year Spree” that Frankenstein is the, “first seminal work to which the label science fiction can be logically attached.” 9
Nonetheless, while different, Frankenstein was admired. The Blackwood Edinburg 2 Magazine wrote in March 1818, “Upon the whole, the work impresses us with a high idea of the author's original genius and happy power of expression.” 10 And The Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine in March of 1818 wrote,” …its originality, excellence of language, and peculiar interest, is likely to be very popular.” 11
During the eighteenth century cheap novels were becoming very popular, which helped lead to Frankenstein's success. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, novels were barely made in more than 1,000 or 1,500 copies. Yet, by the 1840s, 5,000 copies of novels was becoming more common. 12 This increase in reading is also seen in the novel as in the passage, “I [Victor Frankenstein] was passionately fond of reading. These volumes were my study day and night”(2). This fluctuation of printed novels allowed Frankenstein to be more accessible to the public and grow in popularity.
There are a few parts of Frankenstein in which the theme of reading and the absorption of knowledge is particularly apparent: Victor’s childhood, his years at the University of Ingolstadt, and the time spent by Frankenstein’s monster watching the De Lacey Family. These moments give insight into reading practices and social context during the time period in which the novel was written.
Frankenstein grew up curious and with a love for knowledge. In his own words, he was “deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge” (31). However, while Victor was possessed by “Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature,” his friend Henry Clerval, for example, was “deeply read in books of chivalry and romance,” and when Henry heard that Frankenstein was to depart to study at the University of Ingolstadt, his own request for education denied by his father, Henry “deeply felt the misfortune of being debarred from a liberal education” (25). Though they may have had different interests, knowledge was a treasure to Victor and his childhood companions.
Self-teaching is also an important idea in the novel, from the time that Frankenstein picks up his first book on alchemy. Frankenstein goes so far as to say that, "It may appear strange that such should arise in the eighteenth century, but while I followed the routine education of schools in Geneva, I was, to a great degree, self-taught with regard to my favorite studies" (21). During his time at the university Victor combines the knowledge he gains from his professors with that gleaned from independent study, as his obsession to recreate life takes hold of him: From this day natural philosophy… became nearly my sole occupation. I read with ardour those works, so full of genius and discrimination, which modern inquirers have written on these subjects. I attended the lectures and cultivated the acquaintance of the men of science” (49). Eventually, however, Victor arrives at the frontier of his field, and he must press forward on his own.
The observations that Frankenstein’s monster makes of the De Lacey family provide an excellent window into the relationship between reading and ordinary people of the time. Shelley does not fail to justify Felix’s ability to read; the monster explains to us that they had formerly been aristocrats. Furthermore, their poverty permits them the possession of only one book, “Volney’s Ruins of Empires” (140). Everyone gathers around Felix to hear him read and give “very minute explanations.” Felix chose Volney’s work very carefully, deciding on it because it gave a broad understanding of history and how the world came to be the way it was – a highly useful and informative book for uneducated commoners and autodidactic monsters alike.
Despite the prevalence of reading and the pursuit of knowledge in the novel, Victor in the end concludes that one should, "Seek happiness in tranquility, and avoid ambition…” (162). It was through learning and discovery, after all, that Frankenstein was able to create a monster which brought upon him only pain and misery. In this way, Frankenstein offers a potential rebuttal to the Enlightenment and raises the question of whether man’s quest for progress is always worth the consequences. Perhaps the best place to observe this idea is in Victor’s advice to Robert Walton: "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow" (31).
1. Mishra, Vijay. The Gothic Sublime. State University of New York Press, 1994.
2. Curtler, W. H. R. A Short History of Englisch Agriculture. Clarendon Press, 1909.
3. Broadberry, Stephen N., and Kevin H. O'Rourke. The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
4. Marshall, Florence A. (Thomas) "Mrs. Julian Marshall,". The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. R. Bentley & Son, 1889.
5. Sanderson, Michael. "Literacy and Social Mobility in the Industrial Revolution in England." Past & Present, no. 56 (1972): 75-104. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650473.> 1. `
6. The Belle Assemblée, or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine.” Romantic Circles, Romantic Circles, 1 Mar. 1998, www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/barev.html.
7. “From The Gentleman's Magazine, April 1818.” Romantic Circles, Romantic Circles, 1 Apr. 1818, www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/gentlemansmag.
8. “The Athenæum, 10 November 1832.” Romantic Circles, Romantic Circles, 1 Nov. 1832, www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/athenaeum.
9. Aldiss, Brian W. Billion Year Spree: the History of Science Fiction. Corgi, Transworld Publishers, 1975.
10. “Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.” Romantic Circles, Romantic Circles, 1 Mar. 1998, www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/bemrev.html.
11. The Belle Assemblée, or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine.” Romantic Circles, Romantic Circles, 1 Mar. 1998, www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/reviews/barev.html.
12. Lyons, M. (1999). New Readers in the Nineteenth Century. A History of Reading in the West, 340-342.