Read The Classics: Frankenstein November 23, 2008

The Multnomah County Library invites you to take part in a new book series, where you can read some of the best all-time classics and discuss them under the leadership of Jay Dickson, Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College. Participation is free, but registration is required. You can register online at http://www.multcolib.org/events/classics/1800.html
A limited number of books will be available free of charge for those who pre-register.

One of the cornerstone texts of Romantic fiction, Frankenstein was originally Mary Shelley's entry in the famous ghost-story competition she entered with her lover (and later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley and his friends John Polidori and George Gordon (Lord Byron) at the latter's villa on Lake Geneva one rainy summer day in 1816. The 1818 novel, a nightmarish vision of procreation and science, has influenced literature, theatre, film and popular culture for generations, and has fittingly spawned innumerable adaptations. Deeply invested not only in questions of scientific capabilities and ethics but also in questions about gender and generation, Frankenstein has at its heart the multiple confusions between creator and artistic creation that continue to this day, when people still confuse the monster of Mary Shelley's tale with its titular progenitor. Victor von Frankenstein, the tormented Swiss scientist who breathes life into inanimate flesh, must wrestle not only with the dangers his creation poses to his family and to humanity in general, but also with his ethical responsibilities to his equally beleaguered "child." Come see why the original Frankenstein, with its complexly worked narrative structure, has haunted readers for generations and has been one of the most seminal texts not only in the genres of horror and science fiction, but of imaginative literature in general.

Official Website: http://www.multcolib.org/events/classics/1800.html