Franken-wha?

I've been abridging classic novels for young people for a publisher in NYC. Over the past three months, I've been re-writing Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein, as I've stated in previous posts. Well, four months and three days later, I'm finally done--at least I think I am. There still might be changes to my latest draft of Frankenstein, but I sent it off today with the hopes that I've finally captured the spirit of the origial while still fixing the problems the excellent editor over at Sterling identified.

Of the three books I've written for them now, Frankenstein was certainly the most challenging. Mary Shelley's orginial, written from about a half-dozen points of view, often told through the use of the epistolary narrative, and raft with implausible action (all of a sudden Victor has a boat! all of a sudden he's got a pistol, oh no! the monster's totally changed his personality), remains my favourite in terms of how much I loved the story.

Don't get me wrong, Little Women was a book I read and loved as a pre-teen, and Robinson Crusoe gave me good fodder for grad school papers on post-colonialism (cannibals, ahhh!), but Frankenstein, despite its flaws, and in spite of its overbearingly Romantic overtones, remains a delightful, fascinating and ultimately successful book. Not bad for a teenager, that's for damn sure. Well, Shelley wasn't your average teenager, she did shack up with an older man/poet and was born to one infamous feminist (Wollstonecraft) and one a serious, radical thinker (Godwin).

Maybe it's because I admire the circumstances of her life so much, find the romance in the Romantics so utterly enduring, and put Byron on my must-meet list if I could ever time travel. Maybe it's because the precocious nature of the book consistently amazes me, even after reading it half a dozen times. Or maybe I'm still holding the fact that Jo and Laurie don't end up together against Louisa May Alcott. In the end, I'm a bit disappointed in my abridged version, I'm not sure I've done the original justice, but in the end, I hope my editors like it--and don't ask for too many more revisions.