200 Years On, “Frankenstein” Continues To Captivate Pop Culture, Science

It’s been 200 years since Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” and the story is still very much … ALIVE.

To celebrate the bicentennial, a new book has been released: “Frankenstein: How A Monster Became An Icon.” The volume is edited by Sidney Perkowitz and Eddy Von Mueller, both former professors at Emory University.

They spoke with Lois Reitzes on “City Lights” about why Shelley’s romantic-era novel endures well into the modern age. Their book looks at the original novel and its many adaptations through science, ethics, religion, psychology, film theory and more. Von Mueller said that the “Frankenstein” story is “really a nexus at which all of these distinctions sort of dissolve.”