The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein

Starred review from August 3, 2009
Medical student Victor Frankenstein imbibes fellow student “Bysshe” Shelley's belief in “the perfectability of mankind” and strives “to create a being of infinite benevolence” in this recasting of Mary Shelley's horror classic from Ackroyd (First Light
). When Victor reanimates the body of acquaintance Jack Keat, he's so horrified at the implications of his Promethean feat that he abandons his creation. Outraged, the Keat creature shadows Victor as an avenging doppelgänger, bringing misery and death to those dearest to him. Ackroyd laces his narrative intelligently with the Romantic ideals of Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, and deftly interweaves Victor's fictional travails with events of the well-known 1816 meeting between the poets that inspired Mary to draft her landmark story. His hasty surprise ending may strike some readers as a cheat, though most will agree that his novel is a brilliant riff on ideas that have informed literary, horror and science fiction for nearly two centuries.

August 1, 2009
Prolific literary polymath Ackroyd (Poe, 2009, etc.) rearranges the original gothic horror story of ambition gone awry into a blend of autobiography and history.

Mary Shelley is herself a character in this recasting of her novel; she's one of several real-life figures whose paths cross that of the ambitious, privileged Swiss seeker attracted to all that is new and radical. Victor Frankenstein finds an ally in fellow Oxford student Percy Bysshe Shelley, a passionate atheist who shares his ideas of a new, fairer society of men uncoupled from divine creation. Consumed with curiosity about"the spirit of life," Frankenstein experiments on the dead using electricity to reinvigorate them, seeking to create a human unencumbered by class, society or faith. Obtaining his bodies from grave robbers, he eventually succeeds in reanimating a very fresh young corpse, endowing it with enormous strength in the process, but also horribly changing its appearance. The monster learns it is an object of disgust to other humans and begs its creator for a companion, but Frankenstein, now horror-stricken by his achievement, refuses. Having already killed Shelley's first wife, the monster promises misery to its maker as part of their indissoluble bond. Bizarrely, Victor joins Byron, Shelley, Mary and Dr. Polidori for the Villa Diodati sojourn at which his own story is born, but in this version the conclusion lies back in London, different and dubious.

A questionable mishmash of cultural, scientific, literary, psychological and political material gives birth to an atmospheric but unnatural doppelgänger to Shelley's classic.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 15, 2009
In Ackroyd's new page-turner, readers are taken on a heart-stopping journey through early 19th-century England, where, at Oxford, a young Victor Frankenstein is befriended by budding poet/atheist Shelley. Both men must experimentShelley with his revolutionary lyrics and ideas and Frankenstein with theories about the creation of life from electricity. Writing in beautiful prose with a voice appropriate to the era, Ackroyd allows Frankenstein to narrate the tale of his experiment gone horrendously awry. As the body count mounts, Frankenstein tries to undo his work, all the while mingling with the likes of Lord Byron, Shelley's wives, and other notables. And when the reader comes to the end of the novel, the question remains: was there actually a monster, or was it all a function of the creator's dementia? VERDICT Noted novelist/biographer Ackroyd specializes in speculative novels (e.g., "Chatterton") in which historical figures, supernatural beings, and madmen mingle together on the streets of London. As in Laurie Sheck's recent "A Monster's Notes", the reader is here encouraged to sympathize with the monster. Essential for Ackroyd fans and readers who can't get enough of Frankenstein's monster. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/1/09.]Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib. Overland Park, KS

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2009
Adult/High School-Ackroyd merges historical fiction with literary license to create an alternative reality in which Victor Frankenstein is one of Percy Shelley's schoolmates and close friends. In this retelling of the legend, Shelley is the one who first gives Frankenstein the idea of creating a monster. Soon, both Frankenstein and the Monster are deeply entwined in the lives of the Shelleys and Lord Byron, becoming the cause of many of the strange occurrences that take place in their lives, including the inspiration for Mary Shelley's book. Ackroyd's characters are intriguing, and his depiction of the time period reveals careful research. This book is a fascinating blending of Shelley's original novel, pulling occasional direct quotes from it, and a speculation about the real-life people who were involved in its creation. This is an excellent choice for anyone who enjoys Gothic, historical, or alternative fiction."Kelliann Bogan, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2009
Ackroyds newestzesty historical novel, a clever retelling of Mary Shelleys archetypal Frankenstein, reflects his wry delight inscholarship and science run amok and his pleasure in constructing a good, crisp mystery. Fans of Ackroyds highly imaginative nonfiction will detect the influence of Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination (2003) and his grand biographies of London and the Thames on this polished, fast-flowing yet brooding tale. Ackroyds monomaniacal Victor Frankenstein is obsessed with electricity, the spark of life. He befriends the radical atheist andpoet Percy Bysshe Shelley at Oxford, and soon each attempts to play god.Romantic Shelleytransforms a factory girl into an educated free spirit, while fiendishly ambitious Victor undertakes the dark art of reanimation, recruiting resurrection men to deliver fresh bodies to his secret riverfrontlaboratory. There the monster is born, and torment, mayhem, and terror quickly ensue. Nimble and sly Ackroyd relishes the gritty details of nineteenth-century London, from thefilthy streets to the grim carnival of a public hanging. As he whips up a stormynarrativepunctuated by lightning strikes of precisely aimed social critique, he shrewdly reanimates the timelesscautionary myth of the consequences of humankinds mad, hubristic dream of controlling nature. For acompletely different variation onFrankenstein, watch for Laurie Shecks A Monsters Notes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)