Blog Archives
The everyday monstrousness of Frankenstein
It’s nice to see Frankenstein having a moment again. The classic tale of science run amok mixed with the mysteries of life and death, the wonders of creation and the deeply personal yearning to belong is so well suited for our age — or any human age, for that matter.
In fact, the Frankenstein tale may be perfect for our time. While Mary Shelley wrote it during the Industrial Revolution, perhaps with the new technocrats in mind, it applies just as well to our new AI overlords who are creating things they don’t quite understand and which may one day border on life. It speaks to our anxieties around progress and what sort of responsibility the tech elite and scientists have to society.
Of course, Victor Frankenstein and the creature are not just ciphers for ideas about technology and progress. They are also compelling characters because of their complexity and human condition. Who among us hasn’t wanted to stop death from claiming those we love? Certainly Shelley’s own personal tragedies are reflected in the book here, as she lost her mother shortly after childbirth, a half-sister committed suicide, and two of her children died before the publication of Frankenstein.
I suspect most of us in the current day may identify with the monster, an articulate, philosophical but lonely creature who can find no enduring role in society, who seeks love, enlightenment, belonging — who seeks more — but is thwarted by others at every turn. The monster is an everyman, a stand-in for all of us in our ragged humanity.
Sadly, all those who fear the monster for its difference and seek to drive it away, to banish it from their community, are also us in this undying tale.
Frankenstein is an early tale of science fiction, a Gothic horror, a philosophical inquiry into the meaning of life and death — and perhaps what constitutes a good and meaningful life. As much as the book is a conversation with science and philosophy, though, it is also a tale preoccupied with literary creation and influence. It is a book of contrasting stories, with Victor and the creature each telling their own tale, while infused through with mythology (Prometheus, the Bible) and literary allusion (Paradise Lost, Inferno, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). The novel was even born from a literary contest of sorts among Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori to come up with ghost stories. (Polidori came up with one of the first vampire tales from the same contest.) The entire book is stories within stories.
The literary magic of Frankenstein is why I decided to include the creature in The Dead Hamlets, the second book of my Cross series of urban fantasy thrillers. It’s a tale of Shakespearean ghosts and literary creations that won’t die, so who better to help the immortal rogue Cross track down a mystery ghost born of a work of literature than another mysterious undead character born of a classic of literature?
(If you’ve read The Dead Hamlets, then you may be pleased to learn that Cross and Mary Shelley’s most famous character will cross paths again.)
Frankenstein speaks to so much in our culture – anxiety around death, the mysteries of life, the wonder of science and technology but concern about how we use science and technology, the act of creativity, the longing for connection, the magic of storytelling and so much more. At long last Frankenstein’s creature has found a new life for himself as an integral part of the human community he so longed to join.
Happy World Theatre Day!
Happy World Theatre Day! I got my start in the arts working in theatre and I often miss those days. It’s what inspired my second Cross novel, The Dead Hamlets, which features theatre ghosts, Shakespearean spirits, mischievous faerie, an undead Christopher Marlowe and more.
Reflecting on the day, I realize many of the most magical moments in my lives have happened in theatres. Working on a production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in London, Ont., where the music changed my very DNA; being caught in a storm in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra at the Barbican in England that was as real as any other despite it just being actors on a stage with ropes; remaining mystified to this day by enigmatic judges appearing out of nowhere in a production of Kafka’s The Trial in London, England; and so many more!
Theatre is one of the oldest art forms and continues to persist because it is perhaps the most social. Where else can we gather in a communal space and participate in the same shared imaginative experience? Where else is the audience so necessary to the artistic experience? There’s a creative energy or perhaps a creative relationship that takes place between the performers and the audience, where the space becomes alive with a new world that transcends our own if only temporarily.
Theatre is often a place for working out ideas in that community, from the ancient Greek tragedies and comedies to the present day. I’ll never forget the production of David Mamet’s Oleanna I saw at the Grand Theatre in London, Ont., where the audience engaged in a lively debate after the show about the merits of political correctness (this was before woke culture had emerged). Is this any different from, say, Lsysistrata by Aristophanes or The Doll House by Ibsen?
And theatre remains one of the most important areas for academic studies, not only because of its historical context but also because theatre has a strong history of formal experimentation and political messages.
The influence of theatre is seen on other mediums as well. While film has largely taken the place of theatre in our culture, it remains heavily influenced by theatre. And many of the most popular films are adaptations of plays. Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a favourite film and play of many, including myself. Even the world of theatre often finds itself immortalized in film, such as Shakespeare in Love — which was sold out when I saw it the first time.
Much applause for all the theatre folk who bring magic to a world that desperately needs it. Join them in a theatre in your community and help create and experience that magic.
30% off all books!
My publisher Wolsak and Wynn is holding a holiday sale and all books are 30% off until Dec. 15. Plus free shipping on orders over $50. Here’s your chance to complete your library of my books at a discount!
Direct links from Wolsak and Wynn
In Has the World Ended Yet? we start with retired superheroes living in a soulless suburbia where everyone gets lost trying to get home. Then the angels start to fall from the sky. Is it Armageddon? And do we want the world to end or not?
These tales link together superheroes, ghosts, the undead, a hired hitman, the Cold War, the Rapture and avenging angels in a Twilight Zone–style collection that is riveting and human. We follow characters that are identifiable through situations that are unreal, through a technicolour landscape we are all familiar with. The end of the world is not what we expect, what any of Darbyshire’s characters expect and may not really be happening at all. But should it?
“Even angels have to make a living these days.”
With this dry observance Peter Darbyshire introduces us to Cross, a man who has lived thousands of years, though he’d prefer not to have, and who is now hunting angels in a Barcelona filled with tourists, phone cameras and deep mystery.
The Mona Lisa Sacrifice is a layered supernatural thriller, filled with history, magic and beloved characters. When an angel promises to deliver Judas, a forgotten god of a forgotten people, to Cross for revenge if he can find the real Mona Lisa, a cascading set of mysteries involving a sisterhood of gorgons, Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Morgana le Fay and renegade angels is set in motion. Everything hangs in the balance. Even the fate of the world.
The Witches never failed to extract a price somehow.
When Cross stumbles drunkenly into a darkened Berlin theatre that is staging Hamlet, he does not expect to see Morgana le Fay on stage as Queen Gertrude or witness a real murder. But a deadly ghost is haunting the faerie queen’s plays and Morgana expects Cross to solve the mystery or risk his daughter, Amelia, becoming the next victim. With the fate of Amelia in the balance Cross tries to unravel a mystery that takes him to libraries outside of time, into battles alongside an undead Christopher Marlowe and to bargaining with the real Witches of Macbeth. But is the play the thing, or is there something far older haunting Shakespeare’s famous work?
“You fool,” Sariel said. She gestured with a hand and the table between us slid to the side. “You ridiculous mortal fool. What did you do with the sphinx?”
With these words Cross finds himself thrust into his most dangerous adventure yet, working with the double-crossing angel Sariel to stop Noah from ending his eternal suffering by ending the world. But this Noah has not saved any beings from the flood, he is God’s warden, and he is bound to hold all God’s mistakes captive on his ark for eternity. And he has gone mad. Between provoking the sorcerous pirate Blackbeard, dealing with the devious vampire Ishmael and travelling beneath the seas with Captain Nemo and the last of the Atlanteans, Cross struggles to keep one step ahead of Noah until the last battle occurs before the very doors of Atlantis itself.
The immortal Cross is back in a wild new adventure – a desperate hunt to find the enigmatic Alice from the Wonderland tales. Alice has helped Cross save the world countless times over since she stepped out of the pages of her book, but now she is the one that needs rescue after vanishing during an apocalyptic battle. Aided by the faerie queen Morgana and her court, Cross journeys to mystical islands populated with murderous immortals and into famous libraries with powerful librarians and magical texts until they reach the chaotic and terrifying Wonder Lands, the dangerous inspiration for the original Alice tales. But they are not the only ones looking for Alice – a rogue group of angels are also hunting her for mysterious reasons of their own. The very fate of the world may rest upon who finds Alice first.
A supernatural giveaway!
Wolsak and Wynn, the publisher of my Cross series of supernatural thrillers, is giving away the entire series! To enter, follow them on Instagram and share the giveaway post.
Wolsak and Wynn link: https://www.instagram.com/wolsakandwynn/
Giveaway post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQU_RYSj6bv/
Read an excerpt of The Apocalypse Ark on The Civilian Reader
The Civilian Reader has posted an excerpt of The Apocalypse Ark, the third book in my Cross series of supernatural thrillers. The Civilian Reader previously posted excerpts of the first two books in the series, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice and The Dead Hamlets. If you haven’t yet read the books, here’s a chance to preview them. If you have read them, thanks for reading!
Read an excerpt of The Dead Hamlets in The Civilian Reader
If you haven’t yet read The Dead Hamlets, the second book in my Cross series of supernatural thrillers, The Civilian Reader has an excerpt up. https://civilianreader.com/2025/01/24/excerpt-the-dead-hamlets-by-peter-darbyshire-poplar-press/
You can read an excerpt of The Mona Lisa Sacrifice here: https://civilianreader.com/2025/01/13/excerpt-mona-lisa-sacrifice-by-peter-darbyshire-poplar-press/
Don’t Quill the Messenger interview
My interview with Don’t Quill the Messenger is now live. It was a great conversation about my book The Dead Hamlets, who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays and the power of theatre. (Direct link: https://www.dragonwagonradio.com/dontquillthemessenger/2024/12/28/the-dead-hamlets)
New Cross editions make list of best book covers of 2024
I’m delighted to see my Cross series of supernatural thrillers make the list of best book covers of 2024 from the Hamilton Review of Books! I do love these covers.
Turning pages with The Mona Lisa Sacrifice
I had a lovely conversation with Michael Elves about The Mona Lisa Sacrifice over at the Turning Pages radio show on 101.5 UMFM. We talked about the origins of the series, how difficult it is to write characters like Cross and his friends (namely Alice!), and the importance of knowing when to research the hell out of something and when to let the imagination run wild. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
YouTube version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ShO9CtDTv0
peter darbyshire 