Monster: The Story of Young Mary Shelley
This serious, thoughtful literary novel reimagines the education and incidents that inspired Mary Godwin (later Shelley) in writing her most famous book. The story begins when young Mary meets her new stepmother—no replacement for her lionized “true-mother,” Mary Wollstonecraft—and ends with the publication of Frankenstein, though separate sections bookending each chapter feature a mature Mary reflecting on and explaining her experiences.
Arnold sticks to the accepted (though not expurgated) biography, and his affection for his subjects is palpable. All the favorites are here: philosopher father Godwin, cold and manipulative; Percy, free-loving poet and idealist; even Byron, as a vainglorious sadist. S. T. Coleridge makes a cameo and Wordsworth looms in the background, filling out the roster of English Romantics. The story gains dramatic legs when Mary elopes from London with Percy and her stepsister, Claire; the descriptions of their travels abroad are stunning, and the fraught dynamics of the summer on Lake Geneva that spawns one of the most memorable writing contests in literary history will please Shelley novices and seasoned fans alike.
The problem is that a story about the making of Frankenstein can never be as interesting as reading Frankenstein. Long dialogues on philosophy are stilted in any form, and neither literary analysis nor writing instruction makes for a compelling narrative. Arnold’s Mary is a creature of mind, her ruling ambition to be a published author, and he mutes the ambivalent maternity and rebellious, incestuous passions so powerfully reflected in Shelley’s monstrous creations. Still, it’s likely that no retelling could equal the horror, agony, and outrageous trespasses of Shelley’s very original life and work, and Monster offers a sincere and well-crafted tribute to a brilliant woman and her enduring masterpiece.
