Free classics · 1818
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
A young scientist builds a living being, runs from it, and spends the rest of his life paying for that one choice.
- to read
- 5 h
- to read
- at 20 min a day
- 16 days
- at 20 min a day
- public domain
- Free
- public domain
What it’s about
Victor Frankenstein discovers how to give life to dead matter. The creature he makes is not the grunting monster of the films: he learns to speak and read, and tells his own side of the story.
The book is told in letters and nested stories, moving from the Arctic to Geneva to the Scottish islands. It is shorter than most people expect.
- Responsibility for what you create
- Loneliness
- Ambition without limits
“Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.”
Why people stop, and how to finish
The opening letters from an Arctic explorer feel slow, and readers wonder when Frankenstein himself will appear.
What helps: Skim the four opening letters if you need to; the story proper starts in chapter one. The creature's own chapters, from chapter eleven, are the heart of the book.
At 20 minutes a day you’ll reach the last page in about 16 days.
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