Top Notch

Incredible narration! This book blew me away. It has to be the best title I've listened to thus far on Audible.

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A haunting and thrilling novel

A fantastic plot which is enhanced by the wonderful performance of Derek Jacobi, whose flexible and incredible voice masters the voices of each character, making it easier to remember who is talking! Perfection

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of its time

Derek Jacobi's performance is very good and keeps the narrative flowing.
In relation to the story -it's difficult to comment on this. As any one does I had the general idea of a man who created another creature, but I didn't know the detail. As modern reader I am coming to this with my knowledge of how Mary Shelley's ideas and themes have been used many times since then, so can't perceive it with the freshness that her original readers would have had.

I found it difficult not to become intensely annoyed by Frankenstein. He represents himself as being highly clever, and indeed the narrator who starts and finishes the book is hugely impressed by him (I think he describes him as god-like). My view was that he completely lacked common sense and forethought, did not learn by his own mistakes had no empathy whatsoever for the creature he had created and seemed to be subject to breakdown rather than coping with the consequences of his actions.

The whole story is told in first person, so it is difficult to know what Shelley's own view of Frankenstein's character might be. I had assumed she was in sympathy with him, but whenever she gave the creature voice I came to doubt that.

She herself clearly brought in her own travel experience with the descriptions that characters give of their travels. (although she might have benefited from an atlas to check the distance between Orkney and Ireland).

It's not a book I would listen to again, but I found it interesting and worth hearing.

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really well natrated

most know the story, as I do. brilliantly narrated. absolutely loved it, really feel the story as it unfolds.

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Excellent voice narration

Classic story well told. The voice narration by Jacobi really enhances the listen. A horror more of drama and heartache.

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Now I know the REAL story

Great to hear this book as Frankenstein on TV or film does not reflect the true story. Realised I felt sorry for the creation and he was no real monster. Read wonderfully by Mr Jacobi, as anticipated. Great listen.

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4 people found this helpful

Absolute classic

Possibly the most amazing piece of literature I have had the pleasure to have read with the added pleasure of Mr Jacobbis recital.
Thankyou Sir

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A Gothic Masterpiece

Frankenstein is one of the classics of Gothic literature, and has since spawned an industry, not only in horror but in science fiction. It is one of the greatest novels ever written, though it’ has its faults. However, it remains a very stark and frightening lesson in playing God. And the responsibility of creating life. The Creature, nameless, unloved, uncared for, seeking the knowledge of who he is and what he is doing here, his story is poignant and terrifying. The story is enough to keep one awake at night and keep you thinking. I still marvel at the fact that an 18-year-old was able to think this up, a story which has since become a staple in Gothic literature. I sympathise heavily with the Creature, and wanted to grab Victor by the shoulders and shake him and tell him to get a grip. He made new life, he has a responsibility for it.

I love this book, and it’s masterfully told by Derek Jacobi, one of my favourite narrators. He did amazingly reading the M. R. James Ghost Stories volumes, and was such fun listening to him read Tolkien’s Tales from the Perilous Realm. This performance was, for me, flawless. Absolutely loved it. He captured the atmosphere, he relishes the language with which it is written, and he embodies characters and their emotions. Masterful.

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Wonderful accents

Mr Jacobi reads this with tender insight into the complexity of the characters he portrays. I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Can't help wanting to side with the Creature and give Frankenstein a boot up the backside for his sheer stupidity and moral feebleness.. I wonder if this was a Mary Shelly anti-God polemic. There's so much philosophical to consider in this relativly short book.

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To be, or not to be: that is the question

Mary Shelley’s classic psychodrama asks searching and powerful questions about man’s relationship to the divine. Can limited, mortal man create life, other than in the divinely sanctioned way (i.e., procreation)? Should he? And if he did, what would he create: a noble being, or a monster?

Structurally, the book seems rather influenced by the ‘play within a play’ scene in Hamlet, as at one point — from Chapter 11 onwards — we are presented with a story within a story within a story.

Derek Jacobi’s narration is characteristically Shakespearean. This suits the high-flown melodrama of the tale. Admittedly he struggles with the demand to narrate most of the book in a Genevese accent, but this is entirely forgivable.

Well worth listening to, and inevitably far deeper than any of the cinematic adaptations.

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