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 →- 1 The Lie About the Dream Episode 1 • 17 min • Members
- 2 Letters from the Ice Episode 2 • 15 min • Members
- 3 Fathers, Not Science Episode 3 • 11 min • Members
- 4 Birth, Backwards Episode 4 • 11 min • Members
- 5 The Two Marys Episode 5 • 18 min • Members
- 6 Checked Episode 6 • 13 min • Members
- 7 Team Monster Episode 7 • 13 min • Members
- 8 The Creature Speaks Episode 8 • 15 min • Members
- 9 Greet the Stranger Episode 9 • 10 min • Members
- 10 The Man Who Wouldn't Marry Episode 10 • 15 min • Members
- 11 The Female, Destroyed Episode 11 • 13 min • Members
- 12 Her Name on It Episode 12 • 16 min • Members
- 13 The Conjurer Episode 13 • 16 min • Members
- 14 In Continuation Episode 14 • 18 min • Members
In 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