Frankenstein
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About this story
In the Arctic ice, an explorer's ship takes aboard a man near death who has been chasing a sledge across the floes. His name is Victor Frankenstein, and the story he tells — of a Geneva childhood, a university obsession, and a creature assembled from the dead that opened its yellow eyes and looked at him — is the confession the rest of the novel unfolds.
Mary Shelley began the book at eighteen, during a wet summer on Lake Geneva, and published it anonymously in 1818. Nothing in it resembles the bolt-necked monster of the films: her Creature is eloquent, well-read, capable of tenderness, and given the longest and most persuasive speech in the novel. The real horror is a maker who runs from what he has made, and a made thing that learns, alone, what abandonment costs.
This edition is the complete 1818 text, about nine hours, directed for a cast of twenty-six inside a horror-shadow sound environment — the Alpine wind on the Mer de Glace, the De Laceys' cottage, the ice at the end of the world. Victor, the Creature, Walton, Elizabeth, Clerval and Justine each have a voice, and the text is on screen as it is read.
The cast
- Narrator
- Victor Frankenstein
- The Creature
- Robert Walton
- Elizabeth Lavenza
- Henry Clerval
- Alphonse Frankenstein
- Justine Moritz
- De Lacey
- Felix
- Professor Waldman
- Professor Krempe
How this was made
This is a full-cast production, not a single narrator reading a book. Each character has its own voice, the lines are directed for pace and emotion, and the story plays inside a live sound environment — creaking floorboards and a heartbeat in the dark — that shifts as the scenes change. The voices are synthetic (high-quality text-to-speech, directed by people), and the words appear on screen as they are spoken, so you can read along or follow in a second language.
Questions
Is this the 1818 or the 1831 text?
The complete 1818 first-edition text, the version most scholars and university courses now prefer. About nine hours.
Is it suitable for teenagers?
Rated 14+. It is on many secondary-school and first-year university reading lists; the deaths are reported rather than dwelt on.
How much does it cost?
The opening is free to hear right now, no account needed. The full story is $14.99, a one-time purchase with a free account that stays in your library. Several stories on this site are free in full.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Press Play and it opens in your browser. It works on iPhone, iPad, Android and desktop.
Can I read along?
Yes. The text is highlighted word by word as it is spoken, and you can switch the on-screen text to Spanish while listening in English (or the other way round).
Source and rights
"Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, first published anonymously by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones, London, 1818. Public domain. Complete text, directed by ImmersivePage. Cover and chapter art created for this edition.
