Now that the childhood books are done talking about. Our next segment is about the classics, like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Stevenson, and Dracula by Bram Stoker. Frankenstein was written in 1818, and the book is considered to be the first science fiction book. Mary Shelley wrote the classic after hearing ghost stories with her friends, and one of her friends suggested writing a horror story. Mary lost many close ones to her and it was rough for Mary to write the story, but she continued to do it. In the book, there are parts of book that have multiple perspectives. It includes; Captain Walton’s letters, Victor Frankenstein, The Creature, and Captain Walton’s conclusion. The story is a sad and beautiful tale, with parts of reasonable science and gothic inspirations. I highly recommend this book to be one of the first gothic and classic books, and for those who want to read the origins of Frankenstein and how weird the movies portray the creature.
The short but complex story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Stevenson. Which talks about the complexities of science and the deception of human nature. The story tells about a practitioner who decides to investigate strange cases in his town and asks for help from his best friend, Dr. Jekyll. The practitioner doesn’t know that Dr. Jekyll created an alter ego to lose the fear and guilt of what Dr. Jekyll always wanted to do, and thus, Mr. Hyde was born.
I believe that everybody has heard of Dracula before, but there are always those few
people who don’t know anything about him. Nor do a lot of people know the story of him. So Dracula, written in 1897 by Bram Stoker, goes through the narrative of letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It starts with a businessman invited by Count Dracula who wants to purchase a house in London. Dracula leaves the guy in his castle as the business stays over, and Dracula sets sail to London. As the businessman is left there to survive, Dracula encounters people that the businessman knows. Meanwhile, the vampire hunter, Van Helsing, hunts with his team to ensure that Dracula is stopped from the trouble he has caused.
In the spirit of Halloween, the origins of many Disney stories are way darker than the movies. The Grimm Brothers were siblings who wrote some original stories, like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleepy Beauty, and Rapunzel. Each had a different ending.
In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the prince awakens Snow White with a kiss and takes her to his castle. However, in the actual story, the evil queen attends the wedding of the Prince and Snow White and gets recognized by the prince. He made the Evil Queen dance until she dropped in a pair of red-hot iron slippers.
In the movie Cinderella, Cinderella and the Prince get to marry and move onto a carriage where they live happily ever after. In the Grimm’s story, Cinderella still gets her happily ever later, but her evil stepsisters go through the worst. One sister tries to trick the prince into believing she’s his true love by cutting off her toe to fit into Cinderella’s shoe. The other tries the same trick by cutting off a part of her heel. But after the wedding Cinderella’s pigeon plucked out her stepsisters’ eyes as post-wedding entertainment.
In the movie Sleeping Beauty, Aura gets a kiss from the prince and awakens. Well, the original story is darker than that. There is a king that walks past the sleeping beauty. The king gets with the unconscious woman, leaving her still cold and pregnant with twins.
In the movie Rapunzel, Mother Gothel gets old and perish when the hair gets cut off, then Rapunzel and Flynn Rider get married. In the Grimm’s story, The witch caught Rapunzel and the prince doing the deed. When they depart, the witch and Rapunzel fight, and the witch cuts Rapunzel’s hair and kicks her out of the tower. Later, the witch tricks the prince into climbing the tower and pushes him from the building. He is blinded in the fall and wanders the wilderness, But luckily, he is reunited with Rapunzel and the twins she has given birth to, guided back to her by her beautiful singing voice. The tears of happiness that Rapunzel cries restore the prince’s sight, and they all live happily ever after.
THE SCOOP 37