Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or, A Modern Prometheus became a much discussed and adapted cultural icon surprisingly soon after its initial anonymous publication in 1818. Here, in no particular order, I've gathered some reinventions of the novel ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.
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1. The 1831 edition of Mary Shelley's novel was printed with illustrations and published under her name for the first time. The artist (uncredited, as far as I can tell) who created this frontispiece has given the Monster an impressive six-pack and Frankenstein a lovely leaded window.
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| The Internet Archive |
2. This 1843 lithograph by John Doyle, who published his art as HB., is titled "A New Illustration of the Story: Frankenstein" and conveys the supposed dangers of Daniel O'Connell's efforts to repeal the 1800 Act of Union, which united the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. O'Connell is depicted hovering on the brink of a precipice in the face of an advancing giant brandishing a Phrygian cap with the banners "repeal," "separation," and "anarchy."
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| Wellcome Collection |
3. Memento mori meets Shelley's Monster in the promotional images for the 1942 film The Ghost of Frankenstein. Michaela Marini Higgs discusses the process that turned the Monster green on the Domestika blog.
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| Internet Movie Database |
4. I love this theatrical poster for the 1965 Japanese release of the film Frankenstein vs. Baragon, a co-production of Japan and the United States. But to my admittedly exhausted eye, Frankenstein looks like a cave man carved out of milk chocolate.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
5. Frankenstein works in his laboratory in the frontispiece from the edition of the novel produced by the Cornhill Publishing Company in 1822. Though Frankenstein is working with skeletal remains here, other illustrations (none of which were available in a clear scan) depict a muscular monster.
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| Google Books |
5. The theatrical release poster for the 1951 American International Pictures film I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. Rotten Tomatoes describes the plot thus: "Professor Frankenstein (Whit Bissell) creates a teenager from an accident victim, who gets angry when he learns he is going to be taken apart." AS ONE DOES.
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| Internet Movie Database |
6. Early Victorian actor Richard John Smith, professionally known as O. Smith, as the Monster in an 1826 production of H.M. Milner's play The Man and the Monster: Or, The Fate of Frankenstein. Primarily inspired by Shelley's work, the play was described as "a peculiar romantic, melo-dramatic pantomimic spectacle, in two acts," which makes it sound quite a bit like the poor Monster himself. More skillful portraits suggest that Smith's head, though blocky, was not quite as rectangular as suggested here.
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| University of Illinois |
7. The promotional "teaser" poster by Karoly Grosz for the 1935 Universal Pictures film The Bride of Frankenstein has a rather fetching, if oddly Christmas-adjacent, color scheme.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
8. This playbill cover for the play Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein, by Richard Brinsley Peake, is illustrated with a noble monster more akin to classical sculpture than to later depictions.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
9. This is the actor T.P. (Thomas Potter) Cooke in an 1823 production of the same play. Cooke is said to be the first actor to play the Monster. Harold J. Nichols' essay "The Acting of Thomas Potter Cooke" notes that contemporary reviewers found Cooke affecting not just the dreadful but the tender emotions of the character. Apparently, he also looked good in a toga.
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| New York Public Library |
10. Classic Comics was part of a publishing effort intended to introduce young readers to great authors by translating their works into the newly popular comics format. Frankenstein is adapted in No. 26, the cover art of which (by Bob Webb and Ann Brewster) features the Monster despoiling a swamp in once-natty 1940s suiting.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
12. The 45 RPM disc of the novelty song The Monster Mash, the number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week before Halloween 1962. I have an odd, perhaps inexplicable affection for this song.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
12. A lovely portrait of the artist Godfrey Frankenstein by his brother and fellow artist John. Yeah, absolutely no relation to Mary Shelley's work except the name. Godfrey is known for his many paintings of Niagara Falls among other achievements. Despite the obvious skills evident in this painting, John was disappointed by his lack of artistic success. In 1864 he published a 112-page satirical poem entitled American Art: Its Awful Altitude; after the Civil War, he relocated to New York City and lived as a recluse.
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| Smithsonian American Art Museum |
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| Wikimedia Commons |
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| Wikimedia Commons |
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| Wikimedia Commons |
18. A depiction of the Monster from FIESA, the International Sand Sculpture Festival, in Pêra, Silves, Algarve, Portugal. I can't locate an artist's name and web sources credit this piece to years including 2012, 2013, and 2015. Whatever its date and maker, this Monster is a surprisingly solid and collected fellow, perhaps because sand isn't a medium that lends itself to gore.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
19. The movie only has a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes despite its script by the talented Diablo Cody and I confess I've never seen it, but I couldn't close out this list without a glimpse of the 2024 film Lisa Frankenstein, in which a teenaged girl has a crush on a corpse. Woeful as it may be, but I'm charmed by the juxtaposition of pink hues and macabre decor in Lisa's bedroom.
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| Internet Movie Database |
Happy Halloween, Nineteeners!