Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus (Version 4)

In the summer of 1816, an eighteen-year-old girl invented modern science fiction. The result is a novel that has haunted our nightmares for two centuries. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientist, discovers the secret of creating life. He does so. And then he flees in horror, leaving his creation utterly alone in a world that can only see a monster. What follows is not a simple tale of terror, it is a devastating exploration of what it means to create and be abandoned, to be human and be shunned. The creature, far from the lumbering brute of popular imagination, is eloquent, intelligent, and desperately lonely. He learns to read. He yearns for connection. And when the world offers him only revulsion, he demands the only thing that might save him: a mate, a companion, someone who will not turn away. Frankenstein's refusal to grant this mercy sets in motion a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, a story of revenge and ruin that asks the darkest question a creator can face: what do we owe the things we bring into the world?