Here at the book blog, we're kicking off the bicentennial celebrations with one of our occasional 'fist of five' posts: Miss McLaren recommends five books inspired by some of Frankenstein's themes and ideas. Creatures, creators and mad scientists abound - just step into the lab ...
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
Scottish novelist (and artist) Alasdair Gray shifts his updating of Shelley's story to late 19th century Glasgow, where charismatic scientist Godwin Baxter creates life by transplanting the brain of an unborn child into the body of her drowned mother. Baxter's modern Eve quickly outgrows her creator: but where will her independence lead?
Told from the point of view of the loyal Archie McCandless, Gray's funny and fundamentally warm-hearted novel stitches together truth and invention, history and fiction, Jekyll and Hyde, as it ingeniously maps the Frankenstein myth onto the Victorian era and the rise of 'the new woman'.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Orphan Pip becomes the recipient of an anonymous bequest, and is sent off to London to become a gentleman. But who is his mysterious benefactor? Will Pip be changed by his apparent good fortune? And will he ever win the hand of the dazzlingly beautiful but cold-hearted Estella?
At the heart of Dickens's brilliant novel is an exploration of the ways in which people intentionally, or unintentionally, can make and be made into monsters: the climactic scene, where creature meets creator, owes much to Shelley's original, and raises the same question - which one of them is really the monster??
The Fear Index by Robert Harris
Harris's contemporary thriller fuses Frankenstein with the intermittent monstrosities of the contemporary financial world, as Inspector Leclerc investigates the case of Alex Hoffmann, a hedge-fund manager in the grip of apparent mental breakdown.
Set in and around Geneva, the novel wears its debt to Shelley lightly, as it weaves a chilling vision of a modern Prometheus burnt by his own flames.
Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux
Nicholas Slopen is dead - has been dead for years. So his friends are bemused to find the literary scholar walking around, confused and slightly lost, and not really sounding or feeling like himself at all. Someone's got inside his head: but who? and how?
Russian oligarchs, the Golem of Prague and 18th century literary critic Samuel Johnson donate their bodies to Theroux (brother of Louis)'s science, and, hey presto, 'it's alive!!!!'
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
16 year old Frank lives on a Scottish island, with his hermit-like scientist father, shaping his own dark rituals (violent and disturbing: you have been warned) in isolation from the rest of the world. But when his brother Eric escapes from a mental asylum and returns to the island, it's clear that everything is about to change.
Often gruesome and unpleasant, this is definitely a book for older readers: but in spite of its goriness (and animal lovers might really, really want to avoid it) Banks's novel offers a thoughtful engagement with some of Shelley's key ideas about the creation of a human identity.
If you're interested in finding out more about the myth of Frankenstein, and its creator, you might enjoy Radio 4's documentary, Frankenstein Lives!, which is currently available on BBC's iplayer here: Professor Christopher Frayling explores the legacy and cultural impact of Shelley's novel. Look out for more Frankenstein posts throughout the year, as the blog continues to celebrate the bicentenary.
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