''The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein'' is a 2007 book written and published by John Lauritsen, which defends the
unorthodox hypothesis that the poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...
, not his wife
Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...
, is the real author of ''
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, creature ...
'' (1818). The book also argues that the novel "has consistently been underrated and misinterpreted", and that its dominant theme is "male love."
Summary
Lauritsen argues that Percy Bysshe Shelley, not his wife Mary Shelley, is the real author of ''Frankenstein'' (1818), that the book "has consistently been underrated and misinterpreted", and that its dominant theme is "male love" or
homoeroticism
Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homose ...
. Lauritsen criticizes feminists for constructing "a Mary Shelley myth, according to which she was a major literary figure, one whose genius had been overshadowed - not only by her husband, but also by the other ''male'' Romantics: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats." According to Lauritsen, Percy Bysshe Shelley did not want his authorship of ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' to be known to the public, and for unknown reasons decided to attribute authorship to Mary Shelley, thus helping to begin a "hoax" that has persisted up to the present. Lauritsen maintains that revisions to ''Frankenstein'' made in 1823 and 1831 weakened the work, and that while it was ostensibly Mary Shelley who revised ''Frankenstein'' into its 1831 form, it may primarily have been revised by the political philosopher
William Godwin
William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...
.
Lauritsen argues that handwriting alone cannot be used to determine the actual author of ''Frankenstein''. The drafts and manuscripts are incomplete and in the final stages. Moreover, portions of the novel were dictated by Shelley as shown by several letters.
''The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein'' includes a favorable review of ''Shelley's Fiction'' (1998) by Phyllis Zimmerman, a book in which Zimmerman argues for Percy Bysshe Shelley's authorship of ''Frankenstein'', and a short bibliography of books and articles about Percy Bysshe Shelley and ''Frankenstein''. Lauritsen praises poet
Edmund Blunden
Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...
's ''
Shelley: A Life Story'' (1946), calling it the best short biography about Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Publication history
''The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein'' was first published in 2007 by Lauritsen's publishing company, Pagan Press.
Reception
''The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein'' received positive reviews from Jim Herrick in ''Gay Humanist Quarterly'', Hubert Kennedy in ''The Guide'', and the novelist
Douglas Sadownick
Douglas Sadownick is an American writer, activist, professor and psychotherapist.
Biography
Born in the Bronx in 1959, Douglas Sadownick attended Columbia College for his B.A., New York University for his graduate work in English, and the gradua ...
in ''
The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide
''The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide'' (formerly ''The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review'') is a bimonthly, nationally distributed magazine of history, culture, and politics for LGBT people and their allies who are interested in the gamut of social, ...
''. The book was also reviewed by Richard Labonte in the ''
San Francisco Bay Times
The San Francisco Bay Times, the first LGBTQ newspaper founded jointly and equally by gay men and women, launched in 1978 and remains one of the largest and oldest LGBTQ newspapers in Northern California. The business includes the 24/7 live-stream ...
''.
Herrick commended Lauritsen for presenting a large amount of evidence, and found much of that evidence persuasive, including the difference in quality between ''Frankenstein'' and works such as ''Valperga'' and ''The Last Man'', as well as that between the original and revised editions of ''Frankenstein'' itself, and Mary Shelley's lack of interest in the themes of Percy Bysshe Shelley's work. Herrick credited Lauritsen with carefully examining the "extra-textual evidence", and agreed with him that the fact that the original manuscript of ''Frankstein'' is in Mary Shelley's handwriting does not show that she composed the work. However, while he agreed with Lauritsen that Percy Bysshe Shelley had homoerotic feelings and deep friendships for men and that ''Frankenstein'' "contains potential homosexual relationships", he disagreed with Lauristen's view that ''Frankenstein'' was primarily written for gay men.
Kennedy wrote that Lauritsen was "unafraid to go against accepted opinion and the entrenched literary establishment" and that his work was "intriguing and very readable", based on a careful review of the relevant evidence, and a welcome contribution to literature on the subject. He endorsed Lauritsen's argument that the quality of ''Frankenstein'' is inconsistent with that of works known to have been written by Mary Shelley, suggesting that the work was not by her, and also credited Lauritsen with refuting the argument that the fact that the surviving parts of the original manuscript of ''Frankenstein'' are in Mary Shelley's handwriting shows that the work must have been composed by her. He found Lauritsen's view that the novel's theme is "male love" persuasive, and predicted that it would appeal to gay men. However, he also predicted that while Lauritsen's thesis that Percy Bysshe Shelley is the real author of ''Frankenstein'' might be accepted by readers with no vested interest in the issue, it would be "vehemently rejected out of hand" by the "literary establishment".
Sadownick wrote that Lauritsen confirmed his view that ''Frankenstein'' is a gay work in the same sense as
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
's ''
Leaves of Grass
''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting ''Leaves of Grass'', revising it multiple times until his death. Th ...
'' (1855) and
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
's "
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
''The Ballad of Reading Gaol'' is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, after his release from Reading Gaol () on 19 May 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading after being convicted of gross indecency with other m ...
" (1897), and offered a commendable psychological analysis, and a sensitive line-by-line reading, of the work.
''The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein'' was praised by the critic
Camille Paglia
Camille Anna Paglia (; born April 2, 1947) is an American feminist academic and social critic. Paglia has been a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1984. She is critical of many aspects of modern cultur ...
, who wrote in ''
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
'' that "Lauritsen assembles an overwhelming case that Mary Shelley, as a badly educated teenager, could not possibly have written the soaring prose of 'Frankenstein' ... and that the so-called manuscript in her hand is simply one example of the clerical work she did for many writers as a copyist." Paglia compared Lauritsen's work to that of the critic
Leslie Fiedler
Leslie Aaron Fiedler (March 8, 1917 – January 29, 2003) was an American literary critic, known for his interest in mythography and his championing of genre fiction. His work incorporates the application of psychological theories to American lit ...
, concluding that ''The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein'' was, "a funny, wonderful, revelatory book that I hope will inspire ambitious graduate students and young faculty to strike blows for truth in our mired profession, paralyzed by convention and fear."
The feminist
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century.
Specializing in English and women's literatu ...
dismissed Lauritsen's thesis, writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' that while he argues that Mary Shelley was not well educated enough to have written ''Frankenstein'', his argument fails because "it is not a good, let alone a great novel and hardly merits the attention it has been given." Lauritsen replied that ''Frankenstein'' "is a radical and disturbing work, containing some of the most beautiful prose in the English language ... a profound and moving masterpiece, fully worthy of its author, Percy Bysshe Shelley." The English professor Charles E. Robinson also rejected Lauritsen's thesis, arguing that the testimony of authors such as
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
,
William Godwin
William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...
,
Claire Clairmont
Clara Mary Jane Clairmont (27 April 1798 – 19 March 1879), or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known, was the stepsister of the writer Mary Shelley and the mother of Lord Byron's daughter Allegra. She is thought to be the subject of a poe ...
, Charles Clairmont, and
Leigh Hunt
James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet.
Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centr ...
, as well as the "nature of the manuscript evidence", showed that the work was "conceived and mainly written by Mary Shelley".
References
Bibliography
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External links
John Lauritsen's webpage about the book
{{DEFAULTSORT:Man Who Wrote Frankenstein
2007 non-fiction books
American non-fiction books
Authorship debates
Books about Percy Bysshe Shelley
Books by John Lauritsen
English-language books
Frankenstein
Pagan Press books
Fringe theories