Frankenstein: The True Story

I stumbled across this rare little treasure in the stage play collections at the downtown library. Numerous friends have highly recommended the filmed version of this story, an intriguing alternate take on the legendary Frankenstein story by Mary Shelley. Unfortunately, the film version of Frankenstein: The True Story is rather rare, and quite hard to come by. So, this small paperback, which is the script to the filmed production, serves as a quirky yet highly readable replacement to the video. This novelization-in-script-form features an opening framing sequence of author Mary Shelley sharing the origins of her story with the other writers whose mutual challenge inspired the tale. The story incorporates Shelley's fellow writer Polidori as a character in Frankenstein's tale (not actually in Shelley's story), and plays a bit fast and loose with other elements of the well-known story. But this is still a fascinating and entertaining version of the Frankenstein tale. I still recommend getting your hands on the video version (try your library's InterLibrary Loan service), but in the meantime, this is a fun and intriguing read.

Originally reviewed for my local library's website: http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/bookguide/srec/staffrec10-10.htm ( )