Frankenstein on Screen: Mary Shelley’s Adapted Progeny

Mary Shelley likened the writing of her famous book to Victor Frankenstein’s making of his creature. In this lecture, James Chandler, professor at the University of Chicago and The Huntington's R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Fellow, explores Shelley’s “creature,” in what is now one of the most widely-read novels in the English-speaking world. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus inspired many offspring in the form of myriad adaptations since its initial publication, including more than a century of screen adaptations. What can we learn about these various adaptations by looking at their different ways of handling Shelley’s novel? What can we learn about Shelley’s novel from this remarkably rich adaptation history?