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The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Ackroyd
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £5.99
You Save: £2.00 (25%)
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 584521
Media: Paperback
Pages: 416
ISBN: 0099524139
EAN: 9780099524137
ASIN: 0099524139
Publication Date: April 2, 2009 (In 85 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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| Customer Reviews:
 Nineteenth century galvanism *** 1/2 stars December 4, 2008
J. Minogue (UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
`I was born in the Alpine region of Switzerland, my father owning much territory between Geneva and the village of Chamonix where my family resided.'
The novel starts in typical gothic mode with where the protagonist was born and grew up - here it is the Alps where the young Victor `exulted in storms'. He is `blessed by the poetry of nature itself' and wanting to learn the `secrets of nature', and of electricity in particular, he persuades his father to let him come to `practical' England to study at Oxford. There he becomes great friends with Percy, known as Bysshe, Shelley and later stays with him and his second wife Mary at Lord Byron's holiday villa near Lake Geneva. We all know that this is where Mary Shelley wrote the original Frankenstein as the house party amused each other with ghost stories. It was an amazing feat of the imagination for a nineteen year old - she was fascinated by the emergence of the power of science and by questions of what was monstrous in wanting to understand and to create life. In this novel she has been demoted from creator to small speaking part - it's ironic that that here she is robbed of her best known creation since she is so associated with feminism through her mother Mary Wollstonecraft.
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein mixes fact, nineteenth century fiction and Ackroyd's twenty first century fiction with abandon. Harriet Shelley's life diverges most obviously - rather than being an educated daughter of a wealthy coffee shop owner here she is a East End girl working on a precursor to a factory production line. Harriet is murdered before Shelley meets wife number two in this alternate universe whereas in reality Shelley and Mary eloped whilst he and Harriet were separated. She committed suicide in real life, pregnant and abandoned both by Shelley and her new lover. Generally in this genre the new point of view shines a light on the original and on our assumptions - for example Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea on Jane Eyre. I can't help thinking that in this novel Ackroyd's characters have considerably less complexity than in real life and that Mary Shelley's original had more feeling for the monstrous.
Ackroyd is always great on London and creates the London of this time well with descriptions of Soho and Limehouse and the river, and of the resurrectionists bringing corpses to the hospital and for more money to Frankenstein. He is more convincing with these descriptions than with the romantic poets.
It's a good read but not Ackroyd at his best and for me the end was disappointing and formulaic.
Could never better the original, but good in its own right. October 17, 2008
Brida (Worcs)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The problem with books like THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN is that they are rarely going to live upto the original. However, although this novel cannot be classed as a masterpiece like the original, that does not mean that it is not a good book in its own right.
Ackroyd has stayed true to the original in many ways. His portrayal of Frankenstein as the near mad scientist whose thirst for knowledge pushes the boundaries of normal and moral law is convincing. Similarly, as with the original, THE CASEBOOK also has a sadness to it. This is no easy thing to achieve - for Ackroyd to be able to generate sympathy from the reader for the creature shows that he has done a good job in his narrative.
In order to give his version difference, Ackroyd does give a name to the creature, in sorts. In THE CASEBBOK we learn, that rather than being constructed from reclaimed body parts, this creature is a whole man who is brought back from death. This gives him an identity even though it is somewhat flimsy. It is perhaps one aspect of the story that Ackroyd could have made more use of.
All in all, THE CASEBOOK is a successful attempt at gothic horror. Unlike another reviewer here, I quite enjoyed the twist at the end - it certainly makes you think about another dimension to the story if nothing else. As a quick read for dark nights, I would recommend this novel.
 Diverting, but ultimately hugely disappointing... October 13, 2008
Chintan Nanavati (Staffs, United Kingdom)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is my first Ackroyd and while his narrative is fairly gripping throughout, I'm afraid there's quite a lot to dislike about this retelling/reimagining of the Frankenstein story.
So, yes, the reader is initially fascinated by Ackroyd's puppetry with these - mostly historical - figures. Shelley prances about like an idealistic, ever-so-effeminate man of leisure/occasionally tortured soul with a joie de vivre which is quite endearing. Proto-feminist, cultured, metaphorically trouser-wearing Mary Shelley has a certain, serious-minded believability. And some of the incidental characters - like Fred and Daniel Westbrook - are sufficiently sympathetic. And, yes, Ackroyd does a passable - perhaps even a seamless - impersonation of a 19th century narrator/author. But it nevertheless remains an impersonation. The action flits about more hyperactively than any actual 19th century novel of note does. There are plenty of short scenes which seem to contribute little to the overall narrative and there's just a bit too much literal-mindedness and uneven tone to the whole thing which is in stark contrast to the wonderfully dense, terror-inducing paranoia of Mary Shelley's tragic/Gothic masterpiece.
Oh, and the twist at the end sends one's eyes rolling heavenwards. Especially if Ackroyd expects me to reread his slight, pastichey, entertainment in light of the final-page revelation!
Another Remarkable Novel From a Great London Novelist September 30, 2008
G. J. Oxley (Tyne & Wear, England)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
In this, Ackroyd's latest novel, Victor Frankenstein is a contemporary and companion of Percy Bysshe Shelley at Oxford before Shelley gets sent down for publishing an atheistic pamphlet. Frankenstein eventually cuts short his own studies and joins his friend in London. Here he attends lectures on the new science of electricity and as an amateur anatomist wonders if it can be used to reanimate corpses.
After inheriting money upon the death of his father, he makes the acquaintance of a group of resurrection men who provide him with the cadavers he needs for his experimentation. But he unwittingly unleashes a terrible beast into the world...
I thoroughly enjoyed this, as I have all of Ackroyd's fiction (and non-fiction) that I've read. Here he carefully interposes a fictional character created by another writer - i.e. Victor Frankenstein - into the lives of real historical (mostly lierary) figures, and adds his own excellent fictional characters to the mix - Fred Shoebury, his mother etc. He's done this many times before of course, and this is one of his strengths.
The author has great fun with the major poets of the period. In addition to the fanciful and excitable Shelley, he also has cameos for Coleridge, Southey and Wordsworth, among others and there's lots of scholarly in-jokes (you won't believe the former identity of the monster he creates!) However, his greatest portrait is that of the fiercely intelligent and impulsive Lord Byron, who grows increasingly impossible and fiery as he's taken over by the demons that live within him.
And as Shelley's in here so is his wife Mary - the writer of the original `Frankenstein' novel. One scene is set in the chateau near Lake Geneva which saw the genesis of the original book.
This novel brilliantly evokes the sights, sounds and smells of pre-Victorian London. His descriptions of the stinking, muddy streets, the effluence of the Thames, the dark, low-ceilinged inns, the charnel houses. He's also clever at using place names that resonate with historical significance: Cheapside, Limehouse, St Pancras, Clerkenwell... Ackroyd is a master of the idioms of the time and there is not one single word of his narrative or dialogue that does not feel authentic.
I read the last few pages with my heart beating so fast I could hear it, but I don't know whether I was completely happy with the ending or not - which is why I've dropped a star. However, I am sure there will be many among its other readers who will think it brilliant.
Peter Ackroyd is a bona fide genius and we should treasure him.
Beautifully written, evocative and page-turning September 22, 2008
A reader in the UK
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is an intriguingly-imagined and compelling story, mixing the startling and often heart-breaking exploits of the fictional Victor Frankenstein with real-life characters of his era, including Shelley, Byron, and Frankenstein's original creator, Mary Shelley. The writing is exquisite, and if Mr Ackroyd let any modern expressions slip through the net, I didn't spot them (and I am a pedant about such things...) The atmosphere and imagery of early 19th century London is so vivid it's almost possible to smell the river and the cobbled streets and gaols, and to see the resurrectionists striking their repulsive bargains with the infirmaries. The story unfolds with the measured control of a master and is a wonderful journey. The ending is absolutely remarkable - as a professional writer I should have spotted what was coming, but I didn't!
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