Review:Ackroyd's Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
New Novel Revisits Mary Shelley’s Classic Gothic Tale
Sep 17, 2008
Most readers are familiar with the story of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he creates by bringing a corpse back from the dead. Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s gothic novel has entered popular culture, although many are unaware that the name of Frankenstein refers to the creator of the monster rather than the creature itself.
Frankenstein & Shelley
Peter Ackroyd has chosen to retell this famous tale, moving the setting to the nineteenth century London he recreates so well, and introducing a whole range of well-known names in walk-on cameo roles. The tale is told through the first person narrative of Victor Frankenstein, a studious young man who travels from Geneva to take up a place at Oxford. It is here that he meets poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, although it is not long before both have abandoned their studies and moved to London.
Frankenstein becomes obsessed with an idea of bringing life back to the dead through the use of electricity, and eventually acquires the perfect subject. Jack Keat is a young doctor dying from consumption, and agrees to sell his body for collection immediately upon his death. Thus provided with the fresh corpse he has been seeking, Frankenstein is able to perform the ultimate experiment, and thereby unleashes a preternaturally strong being who seemingly has no moral code upon the world. Angry and unloved, Frankenstein’s monster sets about gaining revenge on his creator in the most bloody fashion.
The Monster's Revenge
The novel is slow to start, as the voice of Frankenstein initially seems slightly laboured and his early experiments with electricity fail to come to life for the reader. Once the creation has taken place and the monster’s own tale begins to unfold, however, the reader is carried along on a tide of events that both horrify and enthral as the body count rises.
Mary Shelley herself makes an appearance in the novel, as a character rather than as the author of the original tale; it is a clever touch that it is she who spots the face of the monster through her window and is able to describe him to Frankenstein – who of course knows only too well what he has made. Another deft touch occurs on the very last page of the novel: only then do we learn to whom Frankenstein has been relating his story.
Misuse of Power
As with the original novel, Ackroyd’s work raises important questions regarding man and his misuse of power: as the monster points out to his creator, “once you create life, you must take responsibility for it” (chapter 15). This is an undeniably entertaining and thought-provoking read, although those who enjoy it would do well to pick up a copy of Mary Shelley’s ground-breaking work as well.
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd is published in the UK by Chatto and Windus (2008), ISBN 9780701182953.
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