"The Lady and Her Monsters" Review

"The Lady and Her Monsters"
by Roseanne Montillo

Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: Feb 5, 2013
Source: sent by publisher

My Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars

Summary from goodreads.com:

The macabre meets art in this startling blend of grotesque nineteenth-century science and fascinating literary creation that examines the actual Victor Frankenstein's and the real-life horrors behind Mary Shelley's gothic masterpiece, Frankenstein

A highly entertaining blend of literary analysis, lore, and scientific history, told with the verve and ghoulish fun of a Tim Burton film, The Lady and Her Monsters traces the origins of the greatest horror story of all time-Mary Shelley's Frankenstein-using the novel as a centerpiece from which to explore the frightful milieu in which it was written. Roseanne Montillo recounts how Shelley's Victor Frankenstein mirrored actual scientists of the period-curious and daring iconoclasts, influenced by their predecessors in the scientific age, who were obsessed with the inner workings of the human body and how it could be reanimated after death.

Montillo reveals how Shelley and her contemporaries were products of their time-intellectually curious artists, writers, poets, philosophers, and others intrigued by the occultists and daring scientists appearing across Europe who risked their reputations and their immortal souls to advance our understanding of human anatomy and medicine. But their remarkable experiments could not be undertaken without the cutthroat grave robbers who prowled cemeteries for fresh corpses. The newly dead were used for both private and very public autopsies and dissections, as well as the most daring trials of all: attempts at human reanimation involving electricity-experiments eagerly attended by the likes of Shelley and other onlookers compelled by the bloody and grotesque.

Juxtaposing the monstrous mechanization and exploitation of rising industrialism with the sublime beauty and decadence of Romanticism embodied in the legendary artists who defined the age, Montillo takes us into a world where poets become legends in salons and boudoirs; where fame-hungry "doctors" conduct shocking performances for rabid, wide-eyed audiences; where maniacal body snatchers secretly toil in castle dungeons. The result is a unique, rich, and revealing look into the creation of a classic.

My Review:

I'm fascinated by all things related to Frankenstein and the author, Mary Shelley, so I knew I had to read this book. The book is a great addition to any fan's library, and I was not disappointed. Yes, the subject matter here is definitely a little graphic in the beginning. I had no idea that scientists were doing that many experiments on reanimating the body, and the author does not shy away from the details. Equally shocking is the lengths that the scientists went to in order to obtain human bodies to experiment on, including grave robbing.

I greatly enjoyed the biographical information about Mary Shelley herself and her partners in crime, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron. Some of this was familar to me, but I did learn a lot of new things about Mary, Percy, and Byron. I learned a lot more about her family as well. Shelley doesn't make her first appearance in the book until about the halfway point though.

I think fans of Frankenstein, or the author Mary Shelley, will want to add this book to their collection. It's definitely got a shock factor that some of the other non-fictional works don't have. I think it will also appeal to fans of the horror genre in general.



Bottom Line: A great way to learn more about Mary Shelley and the background that inspired her to write Frankenstein.