Frankenstein, Volume Three, Chapter Four

In which Victor discovers the identity of the murdered man, falls ill — again — for a couple of months, is found innocent, and is picked up by his dad.



So... is it just me, or are you all kind of rooting for bad things to happen to Victor now? Am I a bad person for feeling this, or is Victor just sort of insufferable? Maybe a little of Column A, a little of Column B? All right then.

Today's cover focuses on Victor, walking in the Alps, just as he first meets the monster whose shadow looms over his shoulder:

This 2007 edition is from Sterling Publishing's Unabridged Classics series, all of which have covers by Scott McKowen. McKowen works in a scratchboard style, which is nicely evocative of old-school woodcuts and such. He's best known for his work illustrating theatrical posters, many of which can be seen here along with much of his other work, and is also well-known in geek circles for illustrating the covers to Marvel Comics' 1602, by Neil Gaiman.

Notes after the jump!

Frankenstein, Volume Three, Chapter Three

In which Victor changes his mind, re: monsters, creating another, and the monster vows revenge, whereupon Victor gets lost at sea and ends up in a land of terrible accents; and in which the narrator apologizes for his terrible accents.



Things are heating up now! Someone's dead! I wonder if the monster had anything to do with it. Probably! No notes this time around, thankfully after last time, so two covers for you here, both from Classics Illustrated:

 

Yes, LOOK AT THIS THING! The lightning font! The perspective that makes it look like the monster is Godzilla-sized! The armpit lightning! Man, this is just fantastic. This is the original line drawing cover of Classics Illustrated number 26, with cover and interior art by Robert H. "Bob" Webb and Ann Brewster. It was first published in 1945 under the banner of Classic Comics, but since this specific cover cost a full fifteen cents and is under the Classics Illustrated banner (the changed the name in 1947), it's probably from the 1951 reprint.

Around 1953, CI decided to update their look by replacing the line drawings with painted covers, and this included replacing the covers of reprints of back issues, leading to this one:

 Here we get to see a scene not usually depicted on covers: the monster being pursued across the polar wastes by Victor in his dogsled. See him back there? He looks like he's waving! Anyway, this cover first appeared in September 1958 and was by Norman Saunders, who you might remember from his saucy "Famous Fantastic Mysteries" Time Machine cover.

That wraps it up for now! Come back next time for Victor's Irish adventure, apparently!


If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!

Frankenstein, Volume Three, Chapters One and Two

In which Victor drags his heels on fulfilling his promise to the creature, and he and Henry travel to Britain; and in which the narrator assures you that that was the whole two chapters.



Well, not a whole lot happened here, besides Victor ultimately secreting himself off the coast of Scotland to finish his work. Lots of notes, though, mostly about people and places Victor and Henry see and discuss on their journey. But first, our cover!

This edition, issued by Tor in 1989, features a cover by well-known fantasy artist Boris Vallejo. More of his work can be found on his official site, though his work tends heavily to the "half-naked barbarians" end of the spectrum, and later into "completely naked fantasy ladies," so maybe don't check it out at work. Anyway, this cover shows the trend from the late 20th century of veering away from Karloff's monster into representing him somewhat more how he's described in the book, while also attempting to re-emphasize his humanity. Though, it should be noted, Karloff's portrayal was in fact very humanistic, but that's not how it really stuck in the public's consciousness.

Notes after the jump!

Frankenstein, Volume Two, Chapters Eight and Nine

In which the creature rages against the heavens and vows revenge, murders just a little bit, then asks Victor for one tiny favor in order to leave everyone alone forever.



Here we go, we're picking up steam again! I mean, still plenty of angst and misery, but we're back to the murdery and mad sciencey place again. Yay!

Today's cover goes full-on Karloff:

This doesn't even really pretend to take its imagery from anything other than the movie. There's even a castle! This 1976 edition published by Pocket Books had this here cover done by Mara McAfee (1929-1984). McAfee started out as a minor-league actor in the 1950s before going on to a very well-respected career as an artist and illustrator who did do some literary illustrations like this, but was best known for satirical illustrations for publications like National Lampoon, which often featured her work on the cover. A small selection of her work (including a closer look at this cover) can be viewed here.

Thankfully brief notes after the jump!

Frankenstein, Volume Two, Chapters Five to Seven

In which the creature edumacates himself with incredibly convenient books, relates the unnecessary backstory of his cottagers, reveals himself to them and is disappointed; and in which the narrator assures you that that does indeed span three whole chapters.



Well, it turns out that our chewy nougat center has, I don't know, a thin ribbon of caramel or something running through it, in the form of the cottager's completely superfluous and interminable backstory. Bah. We dug down four levels deep into this nested narrative, now we claw our way back up. First, though, our next cover! This edition was published sometime in the 1990s by Holt, Rinehart and Wilson.

Aww, sad monster.

Mostly literary notes, and a lot of them, after the jump!

Frankenstein, Volume Two, Chapters Three and Four

In which the creature explains how he lived in a forest for a while, was attacked by some villagers for being scary, and shacked up in a hovel where he could spy on a beautiful little poor family he falls in love with; and in which our narrator really wonders about the family not ever looking into the little little hovel attached to their house over the course of several months even though someone's nearby collecting their wood for them, I mean, right?



Okay, so now we've tunneled down through our Frankenbar into the chewy nougat center that is the Creature's Story, and I think that's where our candy bar metaphor reaches its limit. Anyway, this installment's cover is from a Romanian edition by Excelsior-Multi Press from some indefinite year:

This is crazy! We've got the title all drippy and bleeding and stuff, and it looks like we're seeing the monster as his head is being, like, hooked up, on a background of lab equipment and... and is that a... a crocodile? What in the world is that doing there? Was that used for parts or something?

Notes after the jump!

Frankenstein, Volume Two, Chapters One and Two

In which the family Frankenstein takes a field trip to raise their spirits, where Victor takes a solitary sojourn on a glacier and unexpectedly encounters a familiar face who begs to tell his side of the story.



And so starts Volume Two, where we will find out what the creature has been up to over the past several years after being brought to life and promptly abandoned. A few notes, mostly pertaining to places, but first our new cover:

This cover is from an edition published by Signet in 1965, and is rather special to me as the edition in which I myself first read the story, and which still sits on my bookshelf. It does, however, contain the 1832 version, so it's not the one I'm actually reading right now.

I like the impressionistic style of this cover. It emphasizes the monster's human-like but somehow still bestial nature, and gives the whole thing a sort of air of mystery over horror, while still being suitably creepy. It also manages to be somewhat reminiscent of Karloff's monster — the flat-top head, the sunken eyes — while not being an obvious reference to it.

Notes after the jump!

Frankenstein, Volume One, Chapter Seven

In which Justine goes to trial for William's murder, it goes about as well as can be expected, but Victor makes sure to let us all know that his suffering is the worst of everyone; and in which the narrator is STILL not dead.



Hi-ho, everyone! Yup, still not dead, and here with another installment of Frankenstein. This is a rather short one, as we come to the end of Volume One after only a chapter, but now we start getting into the real angsty stuff. No notes this time around(!), and we're all out of illustrations, so here's our new vintage cover:

Holy hell, how great is this thing? A 1932 printing from Illustrated Editions, with cover (and interior illustrations) by Nino Carbé. Carbé later went on to be an animator at Disney and worked on films such as Fantasia, Bambi, and Pinocchio, though he primarily ended up working as a children's book illustrator. And yes, that's the face of his monster, definitely playing up the "daemon" aspect of Victor's narration. Interestingly, while this was done after the 1931 movie (and, in fact, probably published to capitalize on its popularity), Karloff's monster had not become quite iconic enough to completely overtake designs of the monster, as it later would. It is, however, probably responsible for Carbé putting electrodes in the monster's neck. Man, I wish these illustrations were in the public domain. I would've LOVED to use them here. Ah well.


If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!