Everyone has probably either watched one of the multiple adaptions of Mary Shelley's novel or at least heard about the monster created by Victor Frankenstein, but if you haven't read the book itself, then you probably don't know the story at all. The premise itself is rather simple; a young scientist called Victor Frankenstein creates a murderous creature from stolen body parts and has to deal with the harrowing results as the monster unleashes terror and revenge upon its creator. This sounds like a combination of horror and science fiction, which this novel essentially is, but ultimately, human emotions are the profound factor and the very heart of the book which keep the story flowing. 
 Among the thousands of Goodreads reviews for this book, you will find enough hate for Frankenstein to keep you busy for a while if you really want to read all those one-star-reviews, but if I can give you some advice ... read this book instead. It isn't nearly as long as some of those huge intimidating classics by Dickens, Dumas, Hugo and the like, it is gorgeously written (although a lot of people may disagree here), and you will find more tension in this classic which was written almost 200 years ago than in some thrillers from our time. 
 "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change." 
 "Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock." 
 Going into the experience of reading this book, I wouldn't have expected to find such a richness of vibrant characters, completely different settings ranging from a university in Ingolstadt, Germany up to the extents of the North Pole, and, most importantly, such beautiful writing. The masterful style Shelley applied while writing this book kept me hooked to the story and made me turn pages even if the story sometimes may have stretched out (which it didn't, at least for most of the time). And let's not forget that she wrote the novel at the age of eighteen. Readers seem to criticize her lack of compassion and comprehension for the nature of men, but in the end, every person is different, and what matters is that among the scope of this story, all the characters were believable and worked for me. 
 And when I say all the characters, then I include the monster Frankenstein created. In fact, this hideous creature, murderous and full of revenge and bitterness, is one of the best-developed villains ever created in literature (and my favorite character from this novel). Judging from looks and appearance, the creature is a monster, the personification of evil, but looking behind the shell, what appears is a lonely human being longing for affection and, ultimately, love. Isn't that what humanity is, at its very essence, about? The reasons for the creature's deeds were so believable and well-explained that I couldn't help but feel sorry for his experiences and hope for a happier life (even though I knew the ending and that it is anything but happy). In the end, physical appearance has nothing to do with the humanity of the character behind those looks. It's not physical beauty which makes you human, it's the beauty of the soul. 
 Which leads us to Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, the man who played god with science and corpses and then decided not to accept the responsibility he loaded upon himself. You cannot breathe life into a being only to abandon it, disrespect its struggles to enter this world and then later complain about the being's quest for revenge motivated by the way Victor fathered him without teaching him how to live. Appearing innocent and unable to overcome the step between childhood and adolescence, Frankenstein himself should be called a monster, as it is nothing but a monstrous deed to create life and expect the knowledge of how to live will arise from nothing. 
 I know how many people hated this book, but I don't feel ashamed at all for considering it to be one of the finest pieces ever written and counting it as one of my all-time favorites. To everyone who hasn't read this classic yet, I can recommend experiencing its beauty on your own - and going into it as excited for the story as you would with a mystery novel written in the present days, not expecting to find a boring and dragging classic (which it definitely isn't).