The Frankenstein Binding

This commissioned binding was tremendously exciting, with a cornucopia of delicious imagery to select from. During a gloomy trip to Switzerland, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley forged this gothic/romantic masterpiece, and electrified the world for years to come. This particular edition boasts delightfully dark and bold illustrations by Lynd Ward, and so it was only fitting to touch on those same elements for the binding.

The front cover presents a large, looming, and anatomically unsettling figure… the monster blasphemously reborn by Doctor Frankenstein. In this moment, the monster is sitting calmly, reaching out…

The spine of the binding depicts darkness at the top, taking precedent over the lighter portion below.  A nod to Michelangelo, the gnarled hand of the monster, points to what it desires…

The back cover reveals this desire, the lonely monster requests that the body of a female corpse be reanimated.  The makeshift lab of a man who reached for the secret too soon…Victor Frankenstein, exhausted and hunched over in despair, knowing that he cannot fulfill the monster’s request. He will never create a companion for his abomination of nature, and he will suffer for this decision.

Bound By Felton Bookbinding Ltd.

.