Pride and Prometheus: A Review
Feb. 11th, 2018 03:23 am
First off I got this copy of “Pride and Prometheus” for free in exchange for a review (color me THRILLED!)
This review is MOSTLY Spoiler-free so read at your own risk
To be honest I still feel like I need time to process it all (and that's not a bad thing). I'll admit right now that I've never read the book "Frankenstein“ by Mary Shelley but that didn't stop me from reading the short story (which I read because Mary Bennet is my favorite character from "Pride and Prejudice") I felt I had to see what all the fuss was about (it had already won awards by the time I first read it).
The story is told from the point-of-view from the characters Mary Bennet, Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Creature (whom later calls himself Adam).
The beginning of the story sees a 32 year-old Mary and a nearly 30 year-old Kitty thirteen years after the end of “Pride and Prejudice” in 1815 (in this timeline P&P ends in 1802)
The year finds both Kitty and Mary in want of suitors. Mary has almost resigned herself to the shelf while Kitty clings to the possibility of finding a husband during her last season in town. Then they meet Henry Clerval and Victor Frankenstein at a ball in London that would end up tearing their world topsy-turvy. and nothing would ever be the same for either Bennet sister again.
No two chapters are ever told from the same person back-to-back and some scenes replay though the alternative POV’s can be a bit dizzying but we get to see more of what is going on and some previous scenes that the other character’s may not have been privy to (nor the reader).
The plot is very similar to the short story (written, of course, by John Kessel) that inspired this novel. Some character’s are exchanged for other newer characters in order to make the most of the plot. If you’ve read Frankenstein or perhaps the Pride and Prometheus short story then you have some idea what’s going to happen in the novel but how you get there, that’s the real shocker.
Although at first I felt sorry for Victor but rather quickly I found myself wanting to throttle him most of the time (and the Creature as well) especially near the end. By that point I had almost completely lost all sympathy for Victor.
You want to know who makes an appearance in the novel? Don’t worry it’s not important to the plot.....Mr. Collins! Charlotte Collins had died about six months prior before the ball (along with their second-born son) don’t worry he marries again but it’s not Mary or anyone else we know.
Victor does indeed give into the Creature’s threats and makes him a bride (it’s not Charlotte)
Mary meets Victor again in Matlock while he’s there with Henry and invites them to dinner one night at Pemberley (she and Kitty are visiting the Darcy’s after a trip to London). After dinner a series of Spoilerific Events happen that sends Mary back home with her parents before she starts on her journey to find Victor and demand answers.
Mary runs off from Longbourn to begin her search for Victor and the Creature searches for Victor as well to see what’s taking Victor so long with his bride. They meet up and reluctantly join together to find him after the Creature saves Mary from highwaymen. (Yes I do believe that is Mary and the Creature on the cover)!
By the end of the novel we find Mary in Lyme again, with her precious fossils six years later, as she learns of both Victor’s and the Creature’s final fates.
This novel was everything I hoped it would be and I STILL wanted more.
I hope this review wasn’t too all over the place. I’ve never really done one before like this.