Remember the time I claimed to be a feminist and an SF fan but then I reached an advanced old age without ever reading a super foundational SF text by a nineteenth-century feminist author? WELL THAT TIME IS ONGOING but fortunately my friend Alice has extended the hand of mercy unto me and proposed a co-hosting of a Frankenstein readalong in the month of May.
Even more excitinger, there exists a new annotated edition of Frankenstein, published by the good folks at Liveright, and I am here to report that it is amahzing. The annotations (from what I can tell skimming through it and noisily showing it off to my family members) are A+ and include asides by the editor, Leslie Klinger, to be like “but is Frankenstein straight-up lying to us in this part? Maybe!”1 There are also numerous color illustrations which yr correspondent got very excited about.
The aforementioned folks at Liveright have offered us a copy of The New Annotated Frankenstein to give away to readalong participants, and there are many ways to enter to win it. Sign up for this readalong below; natter about it on social media using the hashtag #TraLaFrankenstein; comment on other people’s blogs on all the ways the 1831 edition is better (or whatever, I am currently in a state of great confusion about the different editions). This giveaway is for US readers only, and I am very sorry about that. Non-US readers are amazing too, and only the US Postal Service keeps us apart by getting rid of international surface mail.
FAQ
What chapters should I read by what days?
Honestly, live your truth, nobody but Ravenclaws ever sticks to reading schedules YEAH SLYTHERINS YOU HEARD ME. (I actually consider Slytherins the second likeliest to stick to a readalong schedule, so I don’t know why I’m having a go at them.) But we’re breaking the book down into four parts based on an extremely cursory glance at some TOCs and a blithe hope that we wouldn’t end reading sections in any weird places.
May 7 – Read through Volume 1, Chapter 5
May 14 – Read through Volume 2, Chapter 5
May 21 – Read through Volume 3, Chapter 2
May 28 – Finish the book! Yay!
My copy of Frankenstein does not seem to adhere to the same organizing principle as this schedule.
Yeah, there are two editions, and the New Annotated Frankenstein uses the 1818 text. If you are reading the 1831 text, which is slightly different, that’s totally fine, because the annotated edition talks about the textual changes, so we can all talk about it and fight over which one’s better. Here’s the schedule if you have the 1831 edition:
May 7 – Read through Chapter 7
May 14 – Read through Chapter 13
May 21 – Read through Chapter 19
May 28 – Finish the book! Yay!
Can I use gifs to express my feelings about the book as we are reading along?
God yes. In fact, if you use a gif you are particularly happy with, please caption it to let us know you’re psyched about it, and we will praise you extravagantly. We are very high on using gifs to express feelings about books from the olden days.
Wouldn’t this readalong be better suited for a spooky month like October?
Where can I sign up to participate?
Right down here! You can also talk about it any time on Twitter or Instagram, with the hashtag #TraLaFrankenstein.
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- I paraphrase. ↩