Frankenstein: 1818, The Classic
Frankenstein,loved by many decades of readers and praised by such eminent literary critics asHarold Bloom, seems hardly to need a recommendation. If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayereddoppelgängerthemes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece.  As fantasy writerJane Yolenwrites of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image … but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power ... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." Includes an illuminating afterword byJoyce Carol Oates.--This text refers to an alternatePaperbackedition.