Subject: Review: THE MEMOIRS OF ELIZABTH FRANKENSTEIN by Theodore Roszak

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 21:36:23 GMT

MEMOIRS OF ELIZABETH FRANKENSTEIN by Theodore Roszak
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1996 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Is it that Mary Shelley's story has always been this popular, or is it
that it is having a revival now?  In 1994 there was a major film based on it
and a major science fiction novel using it as a starting point.  Now there
is MEMOIRS OF ELIZABETH FRANKENSTEIN, a re-telling of the story from
Elizabeth's perspective.

     At first, I had the impression that Roszak was following in the
footsteps of many modern writers, wanting to show women were not the
innocent creatures they had been depicted as, and thinking that the only way
was to show their "seamier" side.  But it soon became clear that this was
not what Roszak had in mind.  Roszak is instead elaborating on the conflict
between Romanticism and Rationalism that Shelley used in her original work.
Though his approach owes perhaps as much to Fritz Leiber as to Mary Shelley,
he has a style that is distinct from either.  His approach to Romanticism is
certainly different from Shelley's, and clearly inspired more by present-day
New Age and Wiccan beliefs than by the Romanticism of the 18th century.
There's also more than a touch of the search for hidden, occult knowledge
that was current during Shelley's time.

     There are a few slip-ups.  Roszak (and his proof-reader) seem to
confuse "prone" with "supine" (twice on page 15).  And the description of
the automata on page 49 is inconsistent with the earlier description of its
performance.  As for more substantive questions involving the accuracy of
the mystic and pagan traditions as depicted by Roszak, I am not
knowledgeable enough to say.  But given that Roszak has made a previous
foray into the field of secret medieval societies (FLICKER) and there is
some overlap in the research involved for the two books, I would expect that
he had in fact been reasonably diligent, and certainly diligent enought for
the lay reader.  While this probably won't appeal to readers who are more
attracted to the science fictional aspects of the Shelley novel, I do
recommend it for those who see it more for its place in the European
literary and philosophical corpus.

%T      Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein
%A      Theodore Roszak
%C      New York
%D      1995
%I      Random House
%O      hardback, US$22
%G      ISBN 0-679-43732-0
%P      425pp
%S      Frankenstein
%V      2

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked]
"I like anarchy, but it's kind of hard to enforce." --Brian Westley