Rethinking Frankenstein

 Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein has long been read as a cautionary tale about the limits of technology, and a warning against scientific hubris. The monster is a man-made creation run amok, seeking revenge on the scientist that harnessed electricity and brought him to life…a horror recreated many times on film.

For the first time in the U.S., a collection of journals and manuscripts from Mary Shelley are on view at the New York Public Library. Ruth Franklin, literary critic and senior editor at the New Republic, has looked through the artifacts and came away with a new prism on the Frankenstein creation myth...one involving childbirth.