The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd

Fans of the late Peter Cushing and the crew from Hammer Films will find little to recognise in Peter Ackroyd's take on this famous story. Frankenstein is no longer a German Baron but a Swiss businessman and his experiments are undertaken in a Dockland warehouse a long way from any Carpathian castle. Igor is also a casualty of Mr Ackroyd's re-write instead Frankenstein's companions are Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and Dr Polidori among others. Why would Ackroyd want to embark on a re-writing of a classic such as this? Surely the original story was perfectly satisfactory and one must ask what has Mr Ackroyd added to it that justifies the effort. On the other hand the writer is very highly regarded in literary circles and no doubt his admirers, and there are many, will welcome what is , after all, a very entertaining book.