The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein

by Peter Ackroyd

Book Overview

A New York Times Notable Book and Providence Journal Best Book of the Year From the incomparable Peter Ackroyd: a brilliant re-imagination of the classic tale that has enthralled readers for nearly... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385530846
• ISBN13: 9780385530842
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese
• Length: 353 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 14 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 9 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

A Romantic Monster

This is a fantastic book, but then I'm a sucker for sequels and retellings of well-known stories. Ackroyd has the period down cold, the language, the mind-set of the people, the essence of the Romantic poets. It's actually a terribly funny book if you share my sense of humor. To hear the creature blather on at length in purple prose (in stark contrast to the Frankenstein monster we're all familiar with from the movies) had me howling. I know that was the spirit of the original, but it just tickles my funny bone. I suspect some will feel cheated by the ending, but I think it's perfect.

Superb!

This was an excellent twist on a well known tale. I breezed through this like a speed reader and enjoyed every page. It was quite entertaining and engrossing. I looked forward to every page and was more then content with the ending of the story. I recommend this book without a doubt to anyone even remotely interested in it.

I loved this one.

Mysterious, horrifying, intellectually stimulating, mystical, philosophical, poetical, moody, dark, spooky, romantic, historical. A great tale told again with a foreboding yet shocking twist. I cried out with a shocked laugh on the last page! In short, I loved this book. I must read more of Mr. Ackroys's books if this is a sample of what to expect! Thanks for an absolutely fun Halloween read!

The Results are Explosive

What if Victor Frankenstein, self-professed scientist, were to meet Percy Bysshe Shelley, romantic poet and a man who married the author of FRANKENSTEIN? It would most likely go something like the story told in Peter Ackroyd's THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN. According to Ackroyd, Victor and Shelley begin their friendship after they are engaged in a rousing discussion at Oxford where the two attend university. As the book begins, Victor is nourishing an avid desire to create life while Shelley is already spouting verse and breaking college rules. This refusal to follow the academic regimen earns Shelley an expulsion from Oxford. In a sanguine mood, he makes plans to move to London, begging Victor to join him, as he has grown quite fond of his company. The city proves to be a much better environment for Victor to continue his "studies." But before he can fully flesh out his theories, he receives word that his beloved sister, Elizabeth, is deathly ill. He rushes home, but she lives only a short time after he arrives, his father shortly following her to the grave. Victor is bereft. And what begins as a burning curiosity for him now turns to madness. Returning to London, he launches himself into his obsession with renewed fervor, an obsession that feeds both his lust for knowledge and his fierce spiritual side: "By restoring human life I was about to begin an enterprise that might change human consciousness itself! I was determined to prove that nature can be a moral force, an agent for good and for benevolent change. To bring life out of death --- to restore the lost spirits and functions of the human frame --- what could be more beneficent? It remained for me now to procure the subjects." But corpses are not particularly difficult to find, although ones in good shape are quite rare. And that's where the Doomsday Men come in. Known as "resurrectionists" --- common grave robbers or body snatchers --- their job is to find specimens for Victor's experiments. Victor has a list of particulars that the bodies have to meet; if he is going to bring them back to life, they cannot be decapitated, severely damaged, or missing major body parts. The Doomsday Men bring him a steady stream, and Victor wisely avoids asking questions about the source of the supply. Finally, he finds the perfect candidate (and everyone knows this part): Victor hooks this body up and dramatically channels lightning through it to regenerate life. And what is missing from Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, the exact details of the resurrection, are richly chronicled in this journal. But all is not well after he gives the creature life. As Victor will tell the reader, the creature, for reasons you will come to understand, begins to stalk him wherever he goes. People around Victor claim to have seen a malevolent fiend, or a lake monster, a visage of hideous proportions. But how is Victor to separate what is truth and what is fiction, especially with his life hanging in the balance? Pe

You'll get a charge out of this one!

Ackroyd has to have a portal into pre-20th century England and Europe. He has this knack of taking us back to those days and immediately immersing us into that society. We travel with Victor Frankenstein, Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron as the events unfold. The Editorial Reviews and blurb by Ackroyd above will tell you plenty about the goings on. We take a tour that is more mystery than horror as Victor experiments with his electrical fluids. This is a page turner - the finish comes too soon. The author's language puts you in the period without hitting you in the head with it. He delves in depth with the story and doesn't bore the reader with the superfluous. If you have a liking for Victorian England, Frankenstein stories and a good yarn - grab a copy, brew a cuppa and enjoy.