Changes

I have a couple of quibbles though. I'm sad that Mary Shelley becomes a reporter of actual events rather than the creator of a truly original story as she was in reality, but that is inevitable, considering the nature of this novel. There is also a powerful twist at the end of the final chapter. Without giving anything away, it left me frustrated. This twist did result in me having a long discussion with my sometime-better-half, who loves a bit of Goth too, about whether this ending was satisfactory, annoying or brilliant. I still haven't decided, but my pondering surely proves this novel has a resonance. Peter Ackroyd's monster, just like Victor Frankenstein's, just won't go away, making ''The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein'' an essential buy for the bookshelf of any reader interested in Gothic fiction.

Further reading suggestion: [[Chasing Angels by Sally Zigmond]] is set during a similar period, partly in Frankenstein's Switzerland; for a look at the science behind Frankenstein's monster (or could it really exist), [[A Teaspoon and an Open Mind by Michael White]] may be of interest. For a taste of Ackroyd the biographer you might like to try [[Poe by Peter Ackroyd|Poe]].