Charlotte Gordon on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
"Many years later, she will tell a story that isn't true."
The Medium and the Monster
Gordon's séance story is Frankenstein's question in another register: what separates the biographer who resurrects the dead from the maker who flees?
Read the introduction →- 2 Letters from the Ice Episode 2 · 15 min
- 3 Fathers, Not Science Episode 3 · 11 min
- 4 Birth, Backwards Episode 4 · 11 min
- 5 The Two Marys Episode 5 · 18 min
- 6 Checked Episode 6 · 13 min
- 7 Team Monster Episode 7 · 13 min
- 8 The Creature Speaks Episode 8 · 15 min
- 9 Greet the Stranger Episode 9 · 10 min
- 10 The Man Who Wouldn't Marry Episode 10 · 15 min
- 11 The Female, Destroyed Episode 11 · 13 min
- 12 Her Name on It Episode 12 · 16 min
- 13 The Conjurer Episode 13 · 16 min
- 14 In Continuation Episode 14 · 18 min
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JoinIn Conversation With – Where this book meets another
The Abdicating Creator: What You Make and What You Refuse to Claim
Victor flees his creature; Dimmesdale hides his child. Gordon and Marshall read both novels' verdict: what a maker refuses to claim festers and returns.
Go deeper →The Monstrous Woman: Art, Sin, and the Women Who Refused to Break
Shelley was called perverse, Hester branded a sinner — Gordon and Marshall trace one machinery punishing women who broke the rules and didn't break.
Go deeper →
The Questions these books keep starting →
How We Make Monsters: Charlotte Gordon on Frankenstein
Frankenstein is about what a creator owes his creation, Gordon argues — Victor's crime is not making the creature but abandoning it.
Go deeper →Is Frankenstein's Monster Really the Villain?
Only one character in Frankenstein ever says 'monster.' What if he's the villain?
Go deeper →Who Was Mary Shelley? The Teenager Who Wrote Frankenstein
Mary Shelley was eighteen: Wollstonecraft's daughter, cast out for eloping with Percy Shelley, grieving a dead child — and writing Frankenstein.
Go deeper →- Was Charlotte Lucas Right to Marry Mr. Collins? Sadie Stein on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
- What Does the A on Hester's Chest Actually Mean? Megan Marshall on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
- Was Thoreau Selfish? The Question of Self-Reliance John Kaag on Henry David Thoreau's Walden
- What Is Kant's Categorical Imperative? Paul Guyer on Immanuel Kant