Frankenstein's Bride, Hilary Bailey

Hilary Bailey's Frankenstein's Bride is bound in a single volume with Mary Shelley's original novel. This is a bit of a trick by the publisher, since the original text is old enough to be out of copyright. I therefore expected Bailey's novel to be, in essence, a genre exercise, an attempt to mimic Shelley's nineteenth-century gothic horror style.

I was therefore not only delighted but rather surprised by the quality of this novel. I found the narrative utterly absorbing. The story of Frankenstein and his hubristic attempt to create human life has been mined by novelists, filmmakers, academics, and on, but the text is so rich that it is far from being exhausted.

Bailey begins after the end of the original novel. Victor Frankenstein has returned to England, having failed to find and destroy his original creation. He has, though, attempted to get on with his life. As the novel progresses, though, it becomes clear that the Monster was not his only, nor his most successful attempt to create a human being. As the title indications, Frankenstein made a bride for the Monster who is far more dangerous than her intended husband.

The writing is somewhat archaic, to match with Shelley's style, but this rarely interferes with the compelling nature of the narrative, which drew me in almost from the first page. I'd highly recommend giving it a read.