The Spouter-Inn

9. Frankenstein.


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It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my

toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the
instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the
lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the
rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out,
when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye
of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its
limbs.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story that

seems familiar to everyone—even people who haven’t read the novel (or seen any
of the movie adaptations). But the novel fleshes out the story that everyone
is familiar with (a scientist creates a creature out of dead parts, releasing
a force of havoc and destruction upon the world) in a number of intriguing
ways. Suzanne and Chris discuss how the novel tackles creation, parenting,
corporeality, nature, and death—as well as how thoroughly it is connected to
Paradise Lost, and why it has inspired
so many adaptations.

Show Notes.

We read the original 1818 text of Frankenstein.

It‘s also available on Project
Gutenberg or as a free audiobook on
Librivox.
[Bookshop.]

The New Annotated Frankenstein.

Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All

Kinds.

The Strange and Twisted Life of

Frankenstein, which includes some information about racialized
imaginings of the creature.

The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein.

Next time: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. Also on

Gutenberg and
Librivox.

You can support The Spouter-Inn (and the rest

of the Megaphonic podcasts) through Patreon.
Thanks!

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The Spouter-InnBy Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma

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