Frankenstein (Whole Story)

Another outstanding title in the acclaimed series described as "a CD-ROM between covers". A deeply thoughtful study of the ethical dilemmas that knowledge can bring to humankind, Frankenstein also provides a portrait of modern science in Europe almost two centuries ago.

This edition of the enduringly popular tale, with its striking illustrations and extended captions unique to the Whole Story series, provides the background information modern readers could otherwise access only through a broad range of supplemental research. This distinctive approach places Frankenstein, first published in 1818, within the context of its era, bringing it vividly to life. A rich new reading experience is the result: readers can enjoy and understand the story in a way as close as possible to that of audiences when Mary Shelley wrote it.

Frankenstein, loved by many decades of readers and praised by such eminent literary critics as Harold Bloom, seems hardly to need a recommendation. If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelgänger themes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece. As fantasy writer Jane Yolen writes of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image … but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power ... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." Includes an illuminating afterword by Joyce Carol Oates.