Frankenstein in Popular Culture
The popularity of Mary Shelley's novel and its various adaptions can be
matched by few works of literature. As early as 1823, when Richard Brinsley Peake's Presumption was staged, and
especially since the famous Universal Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff, Frankenstein has spawned
many thousands of spin-offs, ranging from sombre meditations on the
dangers of science to kitschy cult movies about cross-dressing aliens. And with it comes the image,
endlessly reproduced in everything from horror movies to breakfast
cereals, of a green-skinned, flat-headed, groaning, lumbering giant with
bolts in his neck -- a far cry from Mary Shelley's articulate Creature.
