Frankenstein by Mary ShelleyAs I have been using Goodreads to track my current reading and catalog some past reading, I have noticed that there are some 'classics' of speculative fiction that I have missed. I have seen many movie versions of Frankenstein, but I had never actually read the original novel. I have just begun this story and so far it looks like it is, among many other things, a critique of modernism.
Since I am somewhat used to archaic ways of novel writing, in the sense that to 20th and 21st century ears, novels written in the early 19th century and before seem archaic, I have no problem 'getting into' the spirit of the story. The book starts out as an epistolary novel but within the letters, the narrative story of Dr. Frankenstein emerges. I'm sure more unusual features of the novel will be revealed as I progress further along. (More to come, but in the interim here following are a few interesting quotes:)
[Quote (this exemplifies the hunger of the discoverer or explorer):]
What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death, and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. But, supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.
[Unquote.]
[Quote (against the hyper specialization of our modern era in the sciences):]
"Chemistry is that branch of natural philosophy in which the greatest improvements have been and may be made: it is on that account that I have made it my peculiar study; but at the same time I have not neglected the other branches of science. A man would make a very sorry chemist if he attended to that department of human knowledge alone. If your wish is to become really a man of science, and not merely a petty experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every branch of natural philosophy, including mathematics."
[Unquote.]
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