I recently finished Mary Shelley’s classic, Frankenstein. The story was quite different from what I expected. I’ve seen so many Hollywoodizations of the story and seen so many cameo appearances of Frankenstein’s monster in other films that I expected something quite different. Rather than a square-headed, shambling, mono-syllabic zombie, the creature was nimble, athletic, and cunning. More surprising, (after learning to speak by eavesdropping on a cottage of political refugees for a summer) he turned out to be the most eloquent and persuasive speaker in the whole story.
Where did all that stuff about massive laboratory instrumentation and lightning striking a raised hospital gurney come from? Each new movie portrayal added another layer of debris that obscured the real story.
Have you had a similar experience in your reading? What book surprised you when you read it?
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