Frankenstein's Bride

August 27, 2007
Set in London in 1825, this labored riff on Mary Shelley's horror masterpiece shows the potential pitfalls authors face when writing sequels that take liberties with the plots of literary classics. Jonathan Goodall, a wealthy young Englishman, meets Dr. Victor Frankenstein but knows nothing of the man's infamous past. Then Victor begins to take a passionate interest in Maria Clementi, a music hall singer strangely incapable of speech outside of her stage performances. As Victor labors obsessively to cure Maria's muteness, an unknown assailant launches attacks on him and his family. By keeping the revelations about Victor's experiments in reanimating the dead concealed until the end, Bailey (Cassandra
) prolongs the tale's mystery, but at the cost of diminishing the story of the doctor's scientific transgression and its consequences. The full text of Frankenstein
, reprinted after Bailey's novel, serves only to show the unique brilliance of Shelley's fantastic novel.

September 15, 2007
In Mary Shelley's classic novel, "Frankenstein", Victor begins to create a bride for the monster but stops and tears her apart before she rises. British author Bailey takes this passage as her epigram and asks what would have happened if he had chosen to finish the job. She introduces readers to Jonathan Goodall, a linguistic scholar in London about 20 years after the events of "Frankenstein". He meets Victor Frankenstein, a charming doctor recently returned from America with a lovely wife and child. The two men begin working on the mysterious case of Maria Clementi, who can sing but not speak. As Goodall is drawn into Victor and Maria's disturbing relationship, the doctor's family is murdered, and a familiar hulking figure appears. Despite praising Shelley's erudite monster in her introduction, Bailey unfortunately chooses to portray him as the shambling, groaning creature of the movies. First published in Britain in 1995, this novel arrives stateside in an edition that includes the complete text of Shelley's "Frankenstein" as well. Recommended for large horror collections. Karl G. Siewert, MLIS, Tulsa CityCty. Lib., OK

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