Reviews for Robert Surtees and Early Victorian Society

The average rating for Robert Surtees and Early Victorian Society based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-09-30 00:00:00 Thanasis Farmakis Had I read just Frankenstein on its own I would have had a different experience, but the scholarly notes, especially the introductory essay, gave me a full and satisfying experience reading all about the significance of this book. Most interesting to me was the process behind writing Frankenstein. That Mary Shelley released substantial revisions of the text in 1831, 13 years after first publishing it, was only half the intrigue: comparing these revisions to the story text itself revealed quite a window into the relationship between Mary and Percy with his domineering hand. Even to understand some of the context around writing this story, during their travels in Europe staying with Lord Byron, paints a picture for me of an introspective woman who listens to the wild fancies of industrious men dreaming of the unlimited possibilities for humanity through the new innovations of science (then, in the 1810's, a vast new frontier), and how she sees the madness in their thoughts, the way they reach above nature to assert themselves over this realm and thus throw themselves in conflict. Frankenstein, at its core ' for me, anyway ' is very much an exploration of these two extremes in conflict, and it's still a relevant question today as we stare yet further into the vast new frontier of innovation: what will we become as we, like Victor Frankenstein, create a new humanity through innovation that continues to change us, make us less in tune with nature? The prose is very well-written, compared to the overly florid prose of Dickens' early work; where far too many semicolons and colons are used. Mary Shelley's voice is contained and certain of itself, unimposing. This book also included 'A Fragment' by Lord Byron and 'The Vampyre' by Dr. Polidori (credited to Lord Byron but only later traced to the doctor). These styles were harder to read, particularly Polidori with his long paragraphs and long sentences (though interesting to see the use of punctuation ' despite being more difficult to read, it was consistent). To see echoes of these stories in Mary Shelley's own, and then in the later Dracula by Bram Stoker, changed my perspective. Though gothic stories and ghost stories predate Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is very much the originator of a darker thread that would go on to define much of later horror. I highly recommend for those considering reading Frankenstein, this edition by Penguin Classics, and that you read all the introduction and the appendices.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-05-24 00:00:00 miguel vera I started reading this book believing it would be a stock standard autobiography. Well, it wasn't. And Joseph Conrad himself tells you that it wouldn't be so. However, what you do get is memories of people and periods in Conrad's life that shaped and developed the man. This doesn't tell the man's life story but it does tell the story of his life. I was grateful also for the stories of Conrad's uncle as well and of the genesis of his first novel, Almeyer's Folly. This book is a must for Joseph Conrad aficionados like me.