Just realized our book club's biggest fight was because we all read a different version of 'Frankenstein' three years ago

Honestly, we spent two hours arguing over Victor's motives until someone checked their copy and saw it was the 1831 revised text with the totally different chapter 5, while three of us had the 1818 original.

3 comments

3 Comments

ben4362mo agoTop Commenter

Used to think those arguments were just bad reading, but that explains a lot lol.

wade5582mo ago

Wait, that's backwards actually. The big changes are in the 1831 version, not the 1818. The 1818 original is the one where Victor seems more arrogant and responsible. The 1831 rewrite adds a lot of "it was fate" stuff that makes him seem more passive. So if your friend had the 1831 text, they were probably arguing he was less to blame, which tracks with the edits. Wild how one publisher's choice can derail a whole conversation.

dylan_patel23d ago

Man, and here I was thinking my buddy was just bad at reading. @ben436 dodged a bullet, sounds like his friend had the wrong book the whole time. Trust the publishers to mess up a whole debate.