I love the podcast Mess World, which is a collaboration between Emily Kirkpatrick, who writes I Heart Mess, a newsletter about the worst of celebrity fashion, and Jessica DeFino, who writes Flesh World, which is about the beauty industry. Both take very close and critical looks at fashion and beauty, two subjects that are typically dismissed as unimportant – similar to romance fiction, so you can see why their work is my jam, my coulis, … Continue reading Books as Luxury Items →
Mary Shelley is on iTunes and Amazon, so I finally got to watch it. It’s not great. The casting is perfect but the history is inaccurate, even though the historical truth is so scandalous that it begs to be made into a movie. Seriously, any Mary Shelley movie that doesn’t show her losing her virginity to Percy Shelley on her mother’s grave is a waste of time and talent. That really happened. It’s a true … Continue reading Movie Review: Mary Shelley →
I have been spending this year giving presentations on, and writing about, Mary Shelley, and when I haven’t been doing that I’ve been giving presentations about Jane Austen. Thus I was thrilled that the book Pride and Prometheus was coming out. I didn’t even read the book description. I just looked at the cover and thought: “This will fix everything.” Frankenstein, the novel by Mary Shelley, does not end well. The estimated body count comes … Continue reading Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel →
It’s still alive! Frankenstein was first published 200 years ago in 1818 by Mary Shelley. In Frankenstein, she explores themes of responsibility and the importance of acceptance and empathy. She also explores the controls placed upon women and a justice system that is unfair to the working class. The novel lacks the staggering monster, the character of Igor, and the cry of “It’s alive!” Instead, it has a monster who teaches himself to speak and … Continue reading Happy Birthday to Mary Shelley’s Monster! →
This month marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein. I’m a Mary Shelley fan, so you can imagine the delight with which I discovered that Frankenstein Castle is not only a real place but one that anyone can visit. Its history is so much more bizarre than anything in the novel. The castle is located in Germany, overlooking the Rhine Valley. It was built around 1240 and is currently in ruins. The Frankenstein … Continue reading Romance Wanderlust: Castle Frankenstein →
Outcasts: A Novel of Mary Shelley is about three days in the life of Mary Shelley. I have a burning interest in the life of Mary Shelley, so I was both excited and poised to nitpick. I also should confess having a bias in favor of the author, Sarah Stegall, because we like to sit on panels together and scream about how much we hate Byron. As it turns out, I couldn’t find a damn … Continue reading Outcasts: A Novel of Mary Shelley by Sarah Stegall →
