Scary Book Numero Uno!

 

                                                      Scary Books,

       Kiddies!

 Frankenstein: The Original 1818 Text.  By Mary Shelley, edited by James Reiger.  Pocket Books, 1976.  Copyright 1974.  Cover art by Maria McAfee.

            This astounding book was correctly judged by Pocket Books to be attractive to the general paperback public.  It was originally printed by Bobbs-Merrill, I assume as an English-lit textbook.

             But any monster fan would be captivated by the cover blurb.  Who wouldn’t want to see “the original” text?

             This edition contains a hefty introduction.  The text itself has line numbers in the margins (for reference’s sake), for heaven’s sake!  Reiger also divides the text into three volumes in the places where the original publication breaks were.  You did know that Frankenstein was originally published that way?

            Other items include Shelley’s intro from 1831; and the two other literary works inspired by the famous ghost-story party: “A Fragment,” by Byron, and Polidori’s “The Vampyre.”

            As you know, Shelley’s book is demanding, yet rewarding.  A product of its time, it still resonates today by its inspiration of generations of horrors who never asked to be generated.

            As a side note, the book has no dire warning of copyright from Universal in regards to Karloff’s face and the very specific monster familiar from those movies.  Must have come before the lawyers decided to get busy that way!

            Buy it and read it!

See you Monday for the final week of BLOG-O-WEEN!

Dracula Exploited! Film at Eleven!

It shouldn't come as any news to you that, once news of ole Vlad the Impaler became common knowledge, the land of his reign decided to make some money off the ole stick-in the-mud.

Note the headline ... we monster kids would've called Dracula an "unnatural" resource, eh?  It disturbs me when this story calls Vlad "a national hero."  He was a nationalist, and he may have kept the Turks out of what was later called Romania.  But a hero?  No matter what the italicized lead-in says, not all of Vlad's victims were "enemies."

This clipping is from the October 2, 1983 Tulsa World.

See you Wednesday!

  

IT Came from the King!

... And in my opinion, it was the first King book that was TOO MUCH . But I still bought it with birthday money!

It's the cover story from the October 6, 1986 issue of Time.

In my opinion, nearly every King book needs to ne truncated the way the "original," bloated version of The Stand was.  The shorter version, which I finished rereading this past week, is MUCHO better than the swollen,"uncut version."

Well, here in America BEFORE Cap'n Trips or President Greg Stillson, you're free to disagree with me.  Have you any royal favorites to stick up for?

See you Wednesday!