It’s been years since I’ve read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, an amazingly masculine novel though authored by a very young female. You might get a bit more out of Unnatural Causes if you’ve read Frankenstein recently, but the book stands well on its own.
Unnatural Creatures is a feminist reimagining from the perspective of three female characters—Caroline Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza, and Justine Moritz. All are outsiders brought into the Frankenstein family: first, Caroline, a poor girl married by the father, Alphonse; second, Elizabeth, a poor girl found and adopted by an older Caroline and Alphonse and who becomes the fiancée of Victor Frankenstein; and finally, Justine, a poor hunchback discovered by Caroline and Elizabeth and brought into the Frankenstein home as a servant, but treated well and even educated. These three women become, in turn, the three protagonists in Unnatural Creatures. Strong and complex in their own rights, they wrestle with the philosophical ideas of fate versus self-determination; whether they are responsible for themselves or are victims; whether love or duty is the greater need to fulfill; whether female-based procreation is better or worse than the male-based procreation espoused by Victor Frankenstein.
Waldherr’s prose was delightful, so fully akin to that of Mary Shelley I felt I was reading the original novel; it is also quite atmospheric. Waldherr weaves in historical tidbits occurring in the late 18th century, showing how the French Revolution makes its way to Geneva, thus upping the stakes for the wealthy Frankenstein family. I am not a horror reader but loved this book. It will definitely go on my keep-forever shelf.
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Unnatural Creatures: A Novel of the Frankenstein Women (Muse Publications LLC, October 4, 2022) is available through:
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus was $0.99 on Amazon and is the unabridged 1831 edition by Mary Shelley with preface, introduction, and original frontispiece illustration. It iIncludes a four-chapter excerpt from Unnatural Creatures.
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