Frankenstein
Jan. 15th, 2026 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribSo at the upcoming Capricon convention (get your membership soon – rates are going up!) I will be spending a lot of time talking about Frankenstein. My book club read the original novel and I’m on a panel about Frankenstein in movies, so I’ve done a bunch of homework. In the past week, I read the novel and saw both the 2025 Guillermo del Toro film and the 1931 “original” film. (Wikipedia has a list of 400+ films going back to 1910.) I'm also going to screen Young Frankenstein before the con. Thoughts:
1) Most creators make Frankenstein’s bride / companion as a second movie. However, in the original novel, the Monster requests and Frankenstein starts work on one. However, he abandons it.
2) The 1931 movie is based on a play, and diverges greatly from the book in structure and characters. For example, the Monster is mute in the movie but speaks (at length) in the book.
3) We have a record that Mary Shelley saw the first stage adaptation in 1823. This adaptation (per Wikipedia) is a lot closer to the 1931 movie than the book, but Mary Shelley allegedly approved of it. This adaptation is where the Monster (unnamed in the book) starts being referred to as “Frankenstein.”
I suspect from the panelist’s backgrounds, the Capricon discussion will be interesting.
1) Most creators make Frankenstein’s bride / companion as a second movie. However, in the original novel, the Monster requests and Frankenstein starts work on one. However, he abandons it.
2) The 1931 movie is based on a play, and diverges greatly from the book in structure and characters. For example, the Monster is mute in the movie but speaks (at length) in the book.
3) We have a record that Mary Shelley saw the first stage adaptation in 1823. This adaptation (per Wikipedia) is a lot closer to the 1931 movie than the book, but Mary Shelley allegedly approved of it. This adaptation is where the Monster (unnamed in the book) starts being referred to as “Frankenstein.”
I suspect from the panelist’s backgrounds, the Capricon discussion will be interesting.
