Monster: The Story of a Young Mary Shelley

De: Mark Arnold

Narrado por: Samantha Ainslie

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the book that changed the world

Monster: Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and a movie starring Elle Fanning as Mary Shelley, Monster is a brilliant fictionalized biography akin to The Other Boleyn Girl.

Frankenstein: Two centuries ago this year, the young woman who invented science fiction was only 20 when she wrote the book that became Frankenstein. Mary Shelley said, “People ask how I, then a young girl, could think of, and dilate upon, so hideous subject?”

Gothic romance: Her father gave her a far better education than any woman of the age could hope for and made her the victim of ongoing incest. At 15, she became involved with one of the greatest poets in England and made love to him on her mother’s grave. When she was 16, she escaped from home by running away for a six-week walking tour of Europe and formed a ménage à trois with Percy Shelley and her sister.

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein: Her immediate influences were two of the greatest poets of the age. Her lover, Percy Shelley, coached her to expand her understanding of writing. Her mentor, Lord Byron, challenged her to prove she was as good a writer as the best poet-philosophers of the Enlightenment. Both men admired her mind, and both wanted more. By the time she was 20, she had published the book that changed the world.

©2017 Mango Publishing (P)2018 Mango Publishing

good but slow

Somewhere in the middle, the story grew tedious and I wanted to quit. But once Mary finally conceived of her monster story, my interest was back and wanting more detail about Mary herself and the original version. Listening to the book made it easier to consume.

The Reader!

Content very interesting but the reader is hard to listen to. I can think of at least 10 readers who would have made this a 5 star performance. Such a shame.

Well... It's Written Well

I can tell the book is written very well. Unfortunately, the narration was a little tedious and lacked depth. I think this book would have been better read by someone who switched tones for different voices. Every female voice seemed stilted and carping.

I had high hopes for this fictionalized work of Mary Shelley's road to writing Frankenstein and I can tell Mr. Arnold researched his book very well. But the narration by Ms. Ainslie left me a little bored.

I stuck with it to the end, however, to glean a better understanding of Mary W. Shelley's early years with Percy Bysshe Shelley. The book seems to cover that aspect of Mary W. Shelley's life quite well